Halo: The Squad
by PingasMachine
Summary: AU staring at the ending of Halo 3. With the Human-Covenant war over, the Galaxy is returning to peace as the Galactic Alliance is formed to promote peace, technological advances and trade. In order to give them an edge, ONI has created a squad made up of some of the best warriors of multiple species that are loyal to the Alliance. This is Section 4's "The Squad".
1. Prolouge

**Prologue:**

 _Second Alpha Halo (Installation 04B), December 2552._

The sky was almost blood red. Almost, but not quite. The Warthog drove straight up the ramp and launched high into the air. The Chief spotted the _Forward unto the Dawn_ on the other side of the wall of rock. The warthog slammed into the platforms that were acting as the floor. In the distance, a platform exploded upwards. The platforms to the left were gone. They couldn't use that to get to the _Dawn_ directly. They'd have to go around on the path to the right.

A group of sentinels hovered above the platforms ahead. The Arbiter growled and spun the chain gun of the warthog towards these sentinels. The Chief slammed his foot into the gas pedal.

"80 percent!" Cortana warned.

A platform ahead of them exploded. It knocked the platform in front of that one upwards, so it now was a slope. They could go around. It would cost them a few seconds. Chief growled beneath his helmet. They would go up. The engine of the warthog roared and the vehicle few upwards. Straight into the group of sentinels ahead. The Arbiter fired the chain gun. Bullet casing flew off the warthog and bullets slammed into the nearest sentinel. Another one fired a beam. It slammed into the Chief. He hissed and turned the warthog to the right and headed up the slope. The Arbiter fired at the offending sentinel, knocking down its shield and peppering it with bullets.

The warthog reached the top of the slope and then flew through the air. They slammed into the platforms. Chief pulled the wheel to the right. They headed down towards a falling column. A group of flood ran from the pillar. They ran, but they didn't make it until the column crushed them and the platform. The Chief pulled the wheel to right again and narrowly skidded by the gap left by the column. The warthogs wheels spun for a sec, then caught, and then they accelerated forward. Another group of sentinels hovered ahead of them again.

"Arghal!"(A Sangheili swear that roughly translated means "Acidic Blood") Muttered the Arbiter.

The sentinels turned and fired at the warthog. Chief ducked forward and slammed the accelerator. The beams smashed through the remains of the windshield. The Arbiter roared and returned fire. Three sentinels fell from the sky. The Chief raised his head to see the platform in front of them exploded upwards. He slammed the wheel to the left and the warthog flew to the left, narrowly missing said hole.

"90 percent! Firing sequence initiated!" Cortana Yelled.

The Chief exhaled angrily and steadied the warthog. He took a quick glance back at the Arbiter. The Sangheili was busy searching for targets in the surrounding area. He didn't notice the Spartan staring at him. But at least he was still on the end of the warthog. That was all he needed to know. The Chief turned back just as they passed under a large stone archway. The _Daw_ n was directly ahead. The warthog flew over a slope and slammed into the slope.

"Gun it, Spartan! Jump!" Cortana yelled urgently. "Moor it straight into the hangar!"

The Chief gave a faint smile in his helmet and shifted the gear to the highest level and floored the accelerator. The warthog flew down the slope and up the ramp at the end of said slope. The hangar of the _Dawn_ was directly ahead of them. They were fifty meters away… forty… thirty… The warthog began to flip forward. Twenty… ten… the front of the warthog slammed into the floor of the hangar. It flipped upside down, bounced off the floor and slid halfway across the hangar. The Chief was thrown from the warthog and landed a few meters to the left of it.

The Arbiter was less lucky and was thrown to from the turret at the end of the warthog and slammed into the wall at the end of the hangar. The Chief stared at the ceiling for a few second before slowly pushing himself up, he glanced over at the Arbiter, who was up aswell, staring back at the Spartan.

There was an explosion below the ship. The Chief felt a strange sensation before he heard the warthog begin to scrape across the floor. He realised that the _Dawn_ was beginning to tilt the right. The scraping noise increased beside him increased as the warthog began to slide towards the Chief. He reached upwards and, with a grunt, climbed over the warthog. He saw something grey flash across the end of the hangar. Something large followed it. The Chief jumped off the warthog as it slid across the rest of the hangar and slammed into the wall at the right of the hangar. He glanced to the end of hangar to see the scorpion tank slam into a wall of boxes near the door to the upper decks.

The Arbiter pushed his head through the pile of boxes. Him and the Spartan shared a quick glance, then they both nodded. The Sangheili turned and headed towards the forward decks of the frigate. The Chief turned and sprinted to the terminal in the hangar. He pulled Cortana's chip out of the back of his head. He inserted it into the terminal and Cortana's hologram appeared.

"Hang on!" She said, and fired up the _Dawn's_ thrusters.

The Chief grabbed the terminal for support as the frigate accelerated.

"Couldn't you close the doors?" Asked the Chief.

Cortana paused. "Whoops."

She snapped her fingers and the hangar doors sealed. The g-force decreased slightly, but it was still strong enough to force the Chief to hold onto the terminal. The roar of the thrusters suddenly dropped and the g-force stopped.

"We've left the atmosphere of the Halo." Cortana noted.

"Has the Arbiter reached the bridge yet?" The Chief asked.

"He's nearly there. You'd better get there too." She responded blandly.

The Chief turned and left the hangar in a sprint, crashing through a the pile of boxes and heading down the hallway. He ascended a flight of stairs, taking him to the lowest deck of the Dawn. Another corridor extended before him, but ten meters to the left was a flight of spiral stairs that led to the _Dawn's_ bridge. He ascended these with ease.

"Hurry Chief." Cortana said via the COM. "The Halo is at 98 percent!"

"I'm going as fast as I can." He replied, climbing three steps at once.

He reached the bridge about thirty seconds later. The Arbiter sat in the pilots chair. He glanced back at the Spartan and parted his jaws in what was the Sangheili equivalent of a smile.

"I have no Idea how to fly this thing, Spartan." He said, shrugging slightly.

The Chief stared for a second then sat in the other pilot's chair.

"Cortana, how far are we from the portal?" He asked urgently.

"Five hundred kilometres and closing." She replied.

The Chief sighed and relaxed in the chair. He turned to the Arbiter, who was staring at the back window of the bridge. The light of the Halo firing behind them cover the Arbiter's face. The Chief turned around and he too, was caught by the wonder of the ancient Forerunner machine activating. The ball of glowing light at the centre of the ring suddenly exploded outwards. The sphere of effect expanded outwards across space. The ring seemed to be on fire in places. The Chief knew he would never forget this sight.

The _Dawn_ entered the slipspace portal. The Chief could do nothing now. For the last few days he'd kept them repressed as the battle for the Ark raged. Now that it was over and he had nothing left to do, he let his thoughts wander. His first though was of Johnson. The man who had been as much a warrior as any Spartan. Hell, maybe if he'd been born a few years later he could have been one. The Chief spared a though for the marines who had come back with Johnson. He reluctantly opened the log of the Dawn and listed everyone except him and the Arbiter as KIA.

Suddenly Klaxons blared.

"Cortana! What's happening?" The Chief yelled, getting to his feet, along with the Arbiter.

"What does that noise mean?" Asked the Sangheili. "Is it some kind of warning?"

Cortana appeared on the tactical map/table to left of the bridge. The Chief ran over and the Arbiter followed.

"It is a warning alright." She told them hurriedly. "The portal is collapsing."

"What?!" The two shouted.

Cortana displayed a hologram of a long cyclinder that reached from the Ark to the galaxy. A small sphere represented the space around the _Dawn_. She increased the size of it.

"I'm guessing the Halo's effect, or maybe it breaking up from the premature activation, has damaged the portal on the Ark's end." She showed the edges of the slipspace sphere around the Dawn dissolving at the rear and slowly consuming the entire ship."

"Can we do anything?" The Chief asked.

"No." Cortana announced firmly. "But there is a positive effect of this."

"And what might that be, Constuct?" The Arbiter asked.

Cortana zoomed out from the holographic sphere. It showed the cylinder that represented the slipspace tunnel to the Ark from Earth. It was slowly and steadily shrinking. After a few seconds it reached the ending at Earth and closed.

"The tunnel is comprolapsing." She explained.

The Chief was confused by her statement, having never heard "comprolapsing" before.

"What do you mean by comprolapsing?" He asked.

"Well…" She began, then hesitated. "It's a mostly theoretical term devised by physicist Navon Gunad in 2476. There's a complicated explanation for it, but the general term is this; If two points open a slipspace "tunnel", and then one point is destoyed while there is an object/ship in transit, then the tunnel will be compressed and attracted to the other gateway at great speed, faster than even Covenant ships can go." She said.

"And what is good is that to us, Construct? Surely we will be dissolved before we reach the other end?" The Arbiter questioned.

Cortana smiled and raised her finger.

"First off, call me Cortana, not "Construct". Second-off, the comprolapsing effect gives incredible speeds. Seeing as the slipspace field is being dissolved at 1.153 meters per fifteen seconds, it's possible that we can make it to the Earth Gateway before we are dissolved." She smiled.

"We're going that fast!?" Said the Chief, amazed.

"Yep." Cortana grinned. "You boys have a nap while we're waiting. I'll wake you if there's trouble."

The Chief was about to protest when Cortana finished with:

"It's not like you can actually do anything from here, anyway."

The Chief froze. He mentally searched his brain for something to respond with.

"I don't like it, Spartan, but your Cons- I mean Cortana is right. We cannot do anything from here." The Arbiter said, stepping forward behind the Chief.

The Chief sighed. He knew they were both right. But he needed something do, anything to do, to keep his mind off everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. The war was over, Truth was dead, Keyes' daughter, Miranda, was dead, Johnson was dead and the flood had been stopped the same way they had been a hundred thousand years previous. It was a bit much to take in, even for a Spartan. He wondered if the Arbiter felt the same way.

He sat down on the nearest chair, which sagged slightly under his weight. The Arbiter did likewise on a nearby chair. The Chief inhaled and exhaled deeply. The Arbiter relaxed and leaned back in the chair, all four of his mouth mandibles sagging slightly from exhaustion. The adrenaline from the escape from the Halo was fading fast, and the Chief too relaxed in exhaustion. His eyes began to close, however, before they did so, he heard Cortana say something:

"If we don't make it… It's been an honour serving with you both." She whispered.

The Spartan sank into unconsciousness.

 **Review, maybe?**


	2. Chapter 1: Homecoming

**So, In this AU, the galaxy is a bit more friendly than in the actual story. There's also a lot of exposition in this chapter, so bear with me please.**

 **Chapter 1: Homecoming**

The Earth Gate, December, 2552

 _Neither the Spartan nor Sangheili were conscious when the Dawn exploded from the collapsing portal with minimal space to spare. The portal had shrunk from 100 kilometers to a mere one kilometer when the Dawn escaped. The portal closed a mere second later._

-  
Cortana sighed in relief as the _Dawn_ flew through the upper atmosphere of Earth. Dozens of UNSC and Sangheili COMs were pinged at them, but the _Dawn_ had lost her COM array and thus lacked the ability to respond. The frigate streaked over the glassed horizon of Earth. Cortana directed her sensors towards this glassed area. She wondered who were responsible for the glassing; Covenant loyalists or the Separatists.

Cortana attempted to ignite the engines, only then to receive a warning that they had been rendered inoperable by the transition through slipspace. It was still a miracle that they'd made it back in one piece, although many sections of hull were missing and some systems had been rendered inoperable.

"Damn it." She muttered.

She have to resort to gliding the _Dawn_. The frigate did not have an aerodynamic shape. She'd have to borrow some of John's luck to get them down in one piece. Cortana would have grinned if she was in hologram form.

"Here we go." She exclaimed.

She activated the precision manoeuvring thrusters and overrode all fuel limitations, using the thrusters to level the ship. They crossed over Southern half of Africa and began to fall towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Steady, She thought, Steady.

The frigate was three kilometers above the ocean, and descending rapidly. The long range radar detected a squad of UNSC pelicans and a CRS class light cruiser following them.

Two kilometers now. Cortana punched the remaining thrusters to full, trying her best to slow down the fall frigate. It was much too late, though. The _Dawn_ slammed into the ocean, bounced once, then slammed into the ocean again. Fragments of hull and some external sensors broke off the ship, but eventually it lost all of its momentum and came to a rest.

The impact threw the Chief and Arbiter across the bridge. The Chief smashed through a chair and slammed into the sensory console. The Arbiter was a bit luckier and got stuck when he slammed into another chair.

"You two alright in there?" Cortana asked, appearing on the holoterminal beside the captain's chair.

The Arbiter and the Chief disentangled themselves from the wreckage.

"We're fine, Cortana." The Spartan said, the Arbiter giving a quick nod in agreement. "What happened?"

"We've arrived back at Earth. We are now sitting in the South Atlantic." She responded. "And, as a lucky bonus, we're sinking. Yank me."

The Chief nodded as Cortana disappeared. He reached to the back of his head and pulled her chip out, inserted it into the terminal and, after waiting for the central circular gap to glow blue, pulled it out and inserted Cortana into his helmet. The familiar mercury sensation greeted him.

"Still plenty of activity in here." She said, one of her customary quips for such the occasion.

"So, Cons-Cortana." The Arbiter began. "How do we get out of here?"

"Prior to our crash, I detected multiple pelicans and a light cruiser heading our way. We just need to get to the top deck and sit tight." Cortana replied.

Secretly, she was kind of enjoying the frustration in the Arbiter's voice when he started to call her construct and then remember and call her by her actual name.  
The Chief turned and headed to the stairwell of the bridge.

"What's our best exit?" He asked.

"Give me a second." Cortana replied.

She quickly tapped into the _Dawn's_ hull sensors and schematics. A quick scan of these revealed a emergency escape hatch at the rear of the bridge. About 15% of the _Dawn's_ interior was underwater or filling with water. Cortana estimated half an hour until the beaten frigate came to a final resting place.

"Best exit is an escape hatch at the rear of the bridge." She told them, then placed a waypoint on the hatch.

She tried to see if any friendlies had shown up. Unfortunately, the MJOLNIR's sensors maximum range only extended to around 60 meters. There were plenty of COMs being aimed at them though. She searched through them. About 10% were general command broadcasts being sent out around the world. She filtered them out and focused on the remaining ones. About 30% were Human-Sangheili messages regarding their positioning and force deployment. Around half of that was regarding rescue plans for the frigate. She hacked into a feed and listened.

"The frigate appears to being taking on water. Dispatching two Laden-class freighters to assist in moving the frigate. Sending you their positions." A human voice said.

"Received, human. _Prudence of Clarity_ is moving towards the ship. She will use her gravity beam to lift the ship, then your freighters can take her back to a shipyard for repairs." A Sangheili responded.

"This is the UNSC AI Cortana of the UNSC Forward unto Dawn. You are correct, we are taking on water. I estimate 27 minutes until we go down." Cortana announced.

"We... say it again, you are breaking up at patches." Replied the Human.

Cortana repeated the message as the Chief opened the escape hatch and the Arbiter and him climbed the ladder that rolled down up onto the roof of the bridge. The Chief scanned the sea around the frigate, noting the ship bubbling in places. He then scanned the sky, and then paused at a dark patch.

"Cortana, can you enhance that?" He asked.

"On it, Chief." She answered.

She enhanced the image. A CRS class battlecruiser filled her sights. If she'd been in holograph form, she'd have grinned.

"Our ride is here." She announced.

She opened the COM receivers in the MJOLNIR, and was pounded with responses from both the UNSC and the Sangheili. She lit up the Chief's global positioning system, and awaited rescue from the approaching cruiser.

The rescue took little under five minutes, and then the Human and sangheili were safely aboard the _Prudence of Clarity_. The Arbiter stared out of the hangar bay as the _Dawn_ was lifted from the sea by the _Clarity_. The Spartan stood nearby, watching the same thing.

"It's over." The Spartan suddenly said.

The Arbiter turned. "It is. After 27 years. I never imagined it would end like this. And yet… I couldn't imagine any better way for it to end." He whispered.

The _Dawn_ was lifted out of the sea by the _Clarity's_ grav beam. Two Human ships circled the frigate, before finally latching on to the Human ship to tow it away.

"Arbiter?" Some behind them asked.

"Yes?" The Arbiter said, turning around.

The asker turned out to be a young Minor. He swallowed.

"Shipmaster Vadum is on the communications feed. He wants to speak with you, Arbiter." The Minor said.

"Very well. We will talk after, Spartan." The Arbiter said.

The Spartan nodded. The Arbiter followed the minor through the corridors of the _Clarity_. She was not a large ship, around 600 meters stem to stern. The young minor seemed somewhat nervous.

"Is this your first voyage?" Asked the Arbiter.

The minor turned and quickly nodded. Then he led the Arbiter down a narrow corridor. It was bathed in purple light, the standard for the Covenant. But now the Covenant was gone. And the Arbiter himself had been the one to do it. He parted his jaws slightly, the sangheili equivalent of a grin.

"The communication array is in here. The Fleetmaster is waiting for you in here." The minor told him.

The Arbiter walked into the room.

"Arbiter." Greeted the voice of Fleetmaster Vadum.

"No… R'tas. Arbiter was the name the prophets gave me. It was a mark of shame. The Covenant no longer exists. The rank is no longer a rank of shame. Now it is the makr of the great warrior kings of old. And I am not a warrior king of old." The Arbiter said, and just like that, he was now Thel 'Vadamee once more.

No, the –ee suffix went his service to the covenant. He was Thel 'Vadam. He was his own Sangheili once more.

R'tas tilted his head slightly.

"I understand your reasoning, Thel, but I think the rate of Arbiter would help you to win over our homeworld." He replied. "A lot has changed in the short while that you were gone, and I cannot even begin to explain the many ways that it has."

"I no longer wish to rule, R'tas." Thel sighed. "I want to make a new life for myself. I want to set a new path across the stars."

"You can resign from the rate of Arbiter soon, Thel, but not now. Some things great things in the Galaxy are coming to pass, including the foundation of a new Galactic Alliance. It's like… It reminds me of the Covenant, though the two are nothing alike. It's like some kind of alliance between most of the known species in the galaxy, included us and Humans. The goals are to promote technological, peace and trade advances across the galaxy. As you can imagine, the Kig-yar are all over it." R'tas sounded almost unsure, hesitant.

"Is there something wrong, R'tas?" Thel asked.

"Well… Pah. It's nothing, Thel. It's just that the Alliance is all full of politics, and I expected you would be the one to step and decide if this is what's good for the Sangheili. But I fear there may be others who will not make the best decision. Others who despise the other species this Alliance concerns. There's a lot about the Humans ideals of equality, and many Sangheili may not want to hear it. I mean… we've practically been masters of the Covenant for thousands of years." R'tas said.

Thel thought about the Alliance. This was news to him. R'tas hadn't specified much of the Alliance, but from what Thel had heard, it had promise.

"It's not a bonded Alliance, Each species maintains its individuality and territories, but there are a couple of changes regarding multi-species relations and laws. Every species, excluding the San 'Shyuum and most of the Jiralhanae is going to be part of this. But, as I was saying there's one event you need to be present at. In about fifteen days' time, there's going to be some kind of memorial, to honor those who fell in the war. Well, when I say everyone, I really mean the winners. The Humans and Sangheili. Those who were on the "winning" side." R'tas laughed faintly. "I've heard a Human saying on this; "History is written by the victors." And, you know, It's right."

Thel agreed.

"So, I will attend the memorial." Thel said. "Is it just the species present at Earth that will be attending?"

"Yes, Just us and the humans, but this could set a keystone for the Galactic Alliance." R'tas said.

"Very well… We shall talk more after the ceremony, R'tas?" Thel asked.

"Agreed. Until then, may the gods be with you." R'tas said and his hologram faded away.

Thel sighed. A lot of the sangheili phrasing, or at least language, was based on the perception of the Forerunners as gods, and even though the San'Shyuum had been exposed as frauds, that looked unlikely to change. But maybe it could. Maybe the Sangheili could survive these changes if they embraced them. Or maybe, at least, some could.

 _Human-Covenant War memorial, Voi. January 13, 2553_

"Let us remember our dead. Let us remember those who fought far out there, never to return. And let us mark their deaths with this memorial." Admiral Hood said.

It was not a memorial statue. It was a pelican's wing that had been cut off and stuck into the ground. On it read: To all who fell in the Greatest War of all.

The Chief stood near the cliff, still in his armor. His navy blues had been destroyed on Reach, so all he had to wear was the MJOLNIR. He stared over the cliff onto the Earth Gateway. Cortana was in Sydney for a debriefing by ONI HQ.

 _So, what now…_

The Chief had always imagined the end of the war, but he had no idea of what he would do after it. He had no idea what he'd do now. He didn't think that after 27 years of defending humanity, that he could kill a human being without a very good reason.

 _Well, I suppose I will do what I am ordered and see where that takes me._

The Chief thought about all his dead and missing Spartans. And yet none were listed as KIA, all of them MIA, as per ONI regulation. The Chief found himself growing angry at this, his Spartans would never "Rest in Peace". But then again, seeing as the war was over, maybe something would change. He was the last Spartan, now that this war had ended, Had it been worth it, were the sacrifices to save humanity worth it? He would never truly know.

He turned away from the Forerunner Artefact and headed to the old dockyards of Voi. It was nearly impossible to imagine that this had once been a costal setup; the ground was dry and sandy, the sea nowhere to be seen. He walked through the old corridors. Nearly a month ago, him and serveral marines had battled their way through here to destroy a Covenant Anti-Aircraft battery. The Debris had been cleared, but the bloodstains and burn marks of plasma weaponry remained.

The building was quiet; more sound came from the near silent memorial service outside. It was hard to imagine that Elites were attended the service, but It was more a symbolic service; to show that there could be co-operation between the many species of the galaxy, proving that the Galactic Alliance could really work.

The Chief didn't know what to make about this Alliance. Most of the galaxy didn't. From what Cortana had told the Chief, the Alliance would be a collective of races, overseen by a group of councillors and diplomats, where species would rebuild, trade, improve technology and keep peace. If one species was attacked by another, the council would try and sort it out, diplomatically, or if necessary, violently. The same went for any unknown races, but if it came to war, then the full power of the Alliance would be unleased on that race.

The Chief didn't want to think about his dead Spartans; in fact, he almost wished for another war, if only to distract him. Maybe the New Colonial Alliance or Covenant remnants would provide that war. The Chief was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by a loud discussion. He paused and listened to the discussion.

He recognised the voices. It was the Arbiter and the Shipmaster. They were not arguing angrily, but Chief could hear some annoyance in the Shipmasters voice.

"Thel, I can't rally Sangheilios under one banner! I'm a fleetmaster! A warrior! You're the politician! A former kaidon! People won't listen to me! They'd listen to you!" The Shipmaster said. "We need you back at Sangheilios."

"R'tas, I'm not asking you to lead Sangheilios, though you're very welcome to try. I'm asking you to get the leader that arises from the ruins of this war, And a leader will arise from these ruins, and persuade him the Alliance is in his, and the Sangheili's better interests. You have the backing of this fleet behind you. All of them know the worth of the humans. They will support you, when the time comes. And maybe, in the end, you'll end up being the most powerful unified force vying for control of Sangheilios." The Arbiter said.

"Maybe… Thel… Maybe…" The Shipmaster sighed. "Are you sure about the path you wish to choose?"

"Sangheili have always been about honor. And yet, sometimes, I've wondered weither that honor has prevented us being the best we can be. Why should a simple injury, which our honor prevents us from healing, be the reason we can no longer fight? Why should we charge head on into certain death when there are ways for us to outthink the enemy and strike them down with all the skill we posess? I've followed the Sangheili rules of honor my whole life, R'tas. You know this. And yet, I feel it holds us back from becoming the best that we can become!" The Arbiter exclaimed. "You understand my reasoning. I know you do. And I know that the others back on Sangheilios would not except me as a leader if I do something like this. I want to be free to be the best I can be. I will be hindered no longer by Sangheili honor and the Covenant! I will burn my own path across the stars."

"I understand your reasoning, Thel… I do… I pray that… someday we shall meet again. Good luck, Vadam. May you path be bright and fulfilling." The Shipmaster said sadly.

"And yours, R'tas." The Arbiter said.

The Chief hid behind a few barrels as the Shipmaster walked around and headed towards the door, his cape flapping behind him. The Chief watched him leave, then waited for the Arbiter to do the same.

"I know you've been there for the last five minutes, Spartan." The Sangheili announced.

The Chief paused, and then stepped out from behind the barrels.

"How'd you know?" He asked.

The Sangheili parted his jaws slightly and tapped the helmet he was wearing. He seemed to be a mixture of his ornamental armor and modern armor. His helmet was a grey modern minor helmet, but the chest was his older armor's one, The arms were modern armor aswell, but the legs were his older armor. He was unarmed.

"I kept my motion tracker on, even though R'tas didn't bring his." The Arbiter told him.

The Chief nodded, understanding.

"I overheard you talking with the Shipmaster." The Chief began. "You don't plan on returning to your home?"

"No. I want to make my own path, learn things that have been off limits my whole life, thanks to sangheili honor and the Covenant. I'll make my own path, Spartan. You needn't worry about me." The Sangheili told him.

Suddenly, the Spartan heard a soft clang of metal, followed quickly by another, then another. Footsteps. The Sangheili appeared not to have heard, but Sangheili were known for weak hearing.

"I hear something." He whispered.

The Arbiter paused. "I hear… nothing, Spartan."

"It's…" The Chief paused, trying to locate the direction of the sound. "Coming from the corridor right behind you."

The Sangheili quickly turned around, staring at the dark passageway behind him. The Chief clenched his fists, and the Arbiter did the same. They may have been unarmed, but the Chief had his MJOLNIR and the Arbiter had some of his armor. That was when a tall human clad in a suit stepped out from the dark passageway. He had short dark hair and an somewhat different ONI insignia on his handgun, which was strapped to his hip. His left rested upon.

"Gentlemen." He said, giving a smile that had way too much gum for the Chief's liking, "I believe that we may have a business opportunity for you both."

They followed the ONI man, even though the Chief didn't exactly trust him, and he was pretty sure the Arbiter felt the same. He led them to a hidden doorway, which he beckoned them down before closing. Behind the doorway was a flight of stairs that led down to a small square room that seemed almost like an interrogation room. A light flicked on as soon as the Spartan and Sangheili entered. Two armed guards with modified BR55's flanked the doorway. The ONI man headed to a large table at the center of the room. He took a seat.

"Sit." He told them, gesturing at the other chairs surrounding the table.

"All due respect, but these chairs won't support the weight of our gear." The Chief said.

The ONI man gave another smile. "These chairs have been reinforced. They will support your weight. Sit."

The Chief sat slowly into the nearest chair. It sagged slightly under his weight, but didn't fall to pieces under him. To his right, the Arbiter slowly sat as well.

"I am here to offer you a job. We prefer having people talk What I'm about to tell is highly classified, but hey, what do we have amnesia armor-piercing rounds for, eh?" The ONI man said.

The Chief and Arbiter glanced at each other for a second, and then turned back to the ONI man.

"I work for ONI Section 4." He began. "Section 4 was started very recently, with the Galactic Alliance coming into effect; Section 4 was created in order to expand ONI species-wise. We needed multiple species to get into areas full of other species."

"So you want us?" The Arbiter asked.

"Yes. We're offering you a place in "The Squad". You'll be our special operatives squad; You'll be doing objectives that would be suicidal for any other operatives. You'll be working in a squad of 8 people and 2 AIs, with some of the best technology that the galaxy has to offer." The man smiled.

"What about Cortana? Will she be one of the AIs?" The Chief asked.

"Yes. She'll be your shipboard AI and general operations manager." The ONI man replied. "Is that all your questions?"

The man gave a small smirk.

The Chief thought about it. He glanced over at the Arbiter. The Sangheili was silent. Finally the Spartan gave his answer.

"I Accept." The Spartan said.

"As Do I." The Sangheili said a second later.

"Perfect! Welcome to Section Four, Gentlemen." The ONI man grinned.

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	3. Chapter 2: Section Four

**Chapter 2: Section Four**

 _Jimaenius had been part of the Trimmean Pack on Diosac. However, during the war he had forced into exile for refusing to join his pack when the Prophets requested that they betrayed the Sangheili. Jimaenius believed the Sangheili were too strong to overthrow and that the Sangheili would survive and make the Jiralhanae pay._

 _Jimaenius had managed to make his way off-world and got to a planet under the control of New Colonial Alliance. He'd always been a lover of explosives, and had made a name for himself as a mercenary brute with pro-human leanings. Jimaenius believed in unity, after all, packs were unities of Jiralhanae, which nearly every other species no one wanted to be in unity with him, so Jimaenius had learned to live a solidary life, searching for a unity that would accept him._

 _Jimaenius had supported the idea of the Galactic Alliance, even though most Jiralhanae wanted nothing to do with the Sangheili or humans. So he saved up and managed to make his way to the seat of the Alliance, the Sol System. He was natural distrusted by nearly everyone, but not even a week later, a group of humans calling themselves "ONI Section Four" had given him the opportunity of a lifetime. Jimaenius had almost immediately accepted._

 **I+-+-+I**

The Master Chief and the Arbiter were then given a pelican ride to Section Four headquarters, which was on a small island several kilometers north of Britain. From the surface, the island seemed barren and deserted, but following landing they were shown a small elevator that took them several kilometers underground.

They descended for about a minute. The Chief's motion tracker picked up many contacts deep underground. Neither him nor the Arbiter had been given a chance to change out of his armor, but then again, what would he change into?

The elevator doors open. Beneath his helmet, the Chief's eyes widened. Even the Arbiter was surprised. Ahead of them opened a large hollow cave. In the center rested a modified frigate. It was surrounded by scaffolding, but seemed to be in one piece. It was a Paris class, but it seemed to have been upscaled to eight hundred meters in length as opposed to the five hundred meter usual size. Written on the nameplate section of the hull was;

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn_

"Like it?" Asked one of the escorts. "It's the first ship Section Four has ever built, Shields, tri-reactors, an SMAC MK II and plasma torpedoes, all in one ship."

"It is certainly impressive compared to your previous frigates." The Arbiter said.

The escort frowned, and then seemed to forget about what was said, and led them down the right side of the room. They then turned into a corridor lit by faint glow strips. They followed the corridor until they were directed into a common room to the right.

"This is your common room, to be used when you and the squad are at HQ. In an hour or so we'll collect you for your first briefing and mission." The escort told them, then turned and closed the door behind him.

The Chief examined the room. There was a pair of large sofas at the left wall. Two holoterminals rested in the center of the room. It was around twenty meters by twenty meters in diameter, with several door that led to rooms with airtight doors. A single window through these doors revealed a set of double beds.

"Why would these doors be airtight?" The Chief wondered aloud.

The Arbiter tapped them to see if they were airtight. "Some species don't breathe this atmosphere… I hope they don't try to pair us with some Unggoy." The Sangheili muttered.

The Chief noticed a hand scanner beside each door. He removed his glove and placed it on a scanner. There was a pause, then beep, and the door slid open in one swift fluid motion. The Chief stepped into the room and examined it. A bunk bed on one side, and an armor holder on the other. The Chief smiled faintly beneath his helmet.

"This may actually work." He whispered to himself.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Zhab Nin was an oddity amoug the Kig-yar. He was an incredible sniper, but had left the covenant behind to hunt big game amongst the galaxy. Many Kig-yar had frowned upon him. So, he'd assassinated a Kig-yar Queen during her banquet on Eayn, the Kig-yar homeworld. He'd shot her with his modified beam rifle from a high rise building in the City of Ghawet. It had been a shot from almost a kilometer. The Kig-yar left a little sign that he was responsible, and then went into hiding._

 _He'd then continued his life of hunting, eventually being captured by some other human hunters. He was due to be taken to Eayn to be tried by the Queen's successor, until a group of humans had offered him a chance to be released on one condition. He didn't even need to spend a minute or two considering their offer. "When do I start?" Had been the words he'd said immediately after their offer._

 **I+-+-+I**

"The Portal has now been closed for some time. Can you elaborate on why this may be?" The Head of Section One asked, rising slightly from his seat.

If Cortana was not in the presence of some of the most important people in ONI, she would have sighed. This was technically a debriefing, but the brass of ONI was treating it as an interrogation.

"Judging by what spark noted prior to the activation of the replacement Halo, It is reasonable to assume that the Ark has either been destroyed or damaged so badly that it should be impossible to access." Cortana replied.

She brought up an audio log from the Chief's helmet. The Quality was poor, but what was said was comprehensible.

"But a premature firing will destroy the Ark!" 343 Guilty spark's voice said, concerned.

Johnson's voice was dismissive. "Deal with it."

Spark muttered something in comprehensible. Then he fired, and Johnson screamed in pain. Cortana stopped the recording with a snap of her fingers.

"Any other questions?" She asked, sounding calm and collected, while inside she was utterly fed up of this. They were now asking her the same questions they'd asked her an hour or two ago. She was sure ONI was after something, but with her locked out of the buildings systems, she couldn't piece together any logical answers without the evidence.

"The Halos work by destroying all sentient life within the 25,000 light years, am I right?"

"Yes." Cortana replied.

"So why did the Halo destroy or damaged the Ark in the way it did?"

"Unknown. It's possible, that during the firing it shook itself to pieces and those pieces then collided with the Ark, destroying or damaging it, However, we have no evidence of this occurring." Cortana told him.

"Was there really no other way to stop the Flood?" Asked Admiral Margret Parangosky. "The wealth of technology on the Ark could have been a great help to the rebuilding effort. Even the raw materials available on the Ark for constructing Halo would have been a great help in the reconstruction effort on Earth."

"The Flood infestation was too widespread to contain using the Ark's sentinels." Cortana said, and pulled a topography map she'd taken from the Dawn while over the Ark.

She pointed at a mountain range on the map.

"This is an hour before the arrival of the Flood." She noted. She then pulled up one from an hour after the flood arrival.

The mountain range and the surrounding area were covered by High Charity, and the area for one hundred kilometres around had been converted to flood biomass. She highlighted the area under infestation.

"This is the area taken into flood control within an hour. We had no choice in the matter. The flood were too widespread to control, as High Charity still had some anti-ship defences functioning, and we were too focus on Truth to contain the flood when they arrived. The Halo was the only choice." She stated.

There was a pause.

"Are we done?" A women sitting on the far right asked.

There was a collective murmur. Finally, they all agreed.

"Very well." The Admiral said. "Dismissed. Cortana, Captain Tulop here would like to speak with you in her personal quarters following this meeting."

"Very well." Cortana replied, and the debriefing ended.

Cortana waited until her restrictions on the systems were lifted, the split her processes in two, searching through the ONI systems with one half and she headed to Captain Tulop's quarters with the other half.

"Cortana." The Captain said, sitting on a single chair.

"Ma'am." The AI replied.

"Are you here in full, or are you snooping around the ONI systems?"

"Well…" She began.

"I'll take that as a yes. Very well, You've been transferred from ONI Section Three to my Section, Section Four. I'll give you a file with the details."

She rose from her seat and inserted a data storage chip into Cortana's holoterminal. The Captain waited until the upload was complete, which took less than a second, then kicked Cortana out of the holoterminal, leaving her to examine the file in her own chip as the ONI AIs finally caught on and began to chase her around the system. She just barely snuck through and jumped into her own chip, filling it and denying the other AIs access.

"Nice try, boys." She laughed.

She opened the file the captain had given her. It was small compared to most ONI files she had been given. She read through it quickly. I took her a second to absorb the data. ONI Section Four, The Squad, Technology adaptation and The Fate of the _Forward unto Dawn._

"Hmm…" She mused. This was very interesting. She looked over the rota for The Squad. She smiled.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _While the Sangheili were known as the best warriors of the Covenant, it was true that there were some warriors in the other races, such as Liyik and Limid, two Unggoy brothers. They had managed to advance to Spec-Ops fuel rod grunts, where they were the only two survivors of a failed covert offensive operation. The two were able to make it back to the phantom and escape, where they were due to be executed for retreating, but somehow managed to overpower their Sangheili executor. The executor was demoted and they were reassigned to another squad, which they were promptly dismissed from when the Sangheili commanders realised that the Unggoy had gone partially insane._

 _The two, now inseparable, began a trek across the galaxy. They were avoided by nearly all Covenant soldiers but maintained a healthy amongst them all the same. Eventually they were captured by humans following a rampage on a trade port on Frewent, a colony of mixed species, but technically under UNSC control. The two had been confined to a jail cell for seven months, until Section Four had given them an opportunity to escape. They had not been easy to convince, but Section Four had managed it._

 **I+-+-+I**

 **A bit of Backstory for some of the members of the Squad.**

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	4. Chapter 3: Spearhead of Dawn

**Chapter 3: Spearhead of Dawn**

 _ONI Section Four HQ; The Squad common room; CR#4. January 13_ _th_

One hour later, the escorts returned to collect the Chief and the Arbiter. The Arbiter was still examining the sleeping quarters, taking advantage of the fact only him and the Chief were present at the time. All the beds were around ten feet long, with a large amount of customisation. The door to the room opened.

"Your presence is requested by the brass up top." The escort announced.

The Spartan and the Sangheili spared each other a quick glance and got up, and then followed the escort. He led to the shipyard in the center of HQ. The _Spearhead of Dawn_ looked almost completed. The scaffolding had been removed and there were Archer pods, or similar pods being fitted.

"The _Dawn_ is nearly finished. The engineers say she'll be launching very soon. I'm not sure of her crew, though."

The escort shrugged, which was one of the few human gestures that Sangheili instinctively understood. Shrugging must be universal. The Arbiter scratched his bottom left jaw, thinking. The escort led them to an elevator. On the door it read: RESTRICTED

The escort directed them into the elevator. No one else in the room looked over at them. The elevator doors closed. The elevator ascended. It led them to a short corridor with no doors on the sides. A pair of double doors lay directly at the end of the room. The escort stayed in the lift.

"I'm not requested in there. You two are. See ya!" The escort announced.

The Arbiter and the Spartan stepped out of the elevator. Almost immediately, the man closed the doors and the elevator dinged and descended. The two glanced at each other for a second, then walked to the doors at the end of the corridor.

The doors opened as they approached. Inside was an office. A single man sat inside of it, obviously waiting for them. The glanced up as they approached.

"Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam." He said.

He pressed a button on the table. There was screech of metal, then two panels on the floor in front of the desk folded outwards. Two chairs rose from the holes left by the panels. The chairs stopped with a click.

"Sit." The man said.

The two walked over and sat. The man watched them as do so. The Arbiter couldn't help but feel uneasy at the sight of the human staring at them unblinking. After around thirty seconds of awkwards silence, the human spoke again.

"I am Admiral Howard Walker. I'm the lead Admiral of Section Four. I brought you here to brief you on you first mission, Even though it technically isn't a mission." He told them.

The Arbiter noticed the Chief stiffen slightly as the Admiral announced his rank.

"First off, you two will be briefed on you positions in The Squad. You two are the most experienced, being the only two who fought the whole Human-Covenant war. This is you other teammates." Admiral Walker said, pressing another button on his table. Several holographs appeared.

The Arbiter noticed two were of him and the Master Chief. The Admiral swept those two away and they vanished.

"I think you already know who you two are." The Admiral sighed.

He then swept aside one of Cortana.

"Cortana will serve as the management and shipboard AI. You will have a combat AI as well for ground missions." The Admiral said.

"Why would we need another AI for that? Cortana's a perfectly able Combat AI, sir." The Spartan asked.

"Because, She's four years old. She's not a young AI, and she's slowed further by corruptions left in her code by the gravemind and the bulk of Halo data she carries. She's a few milliseconds too slow. In a combat situation, that can be the difference between life and death." The Admiral replied. "The AI you will be getting is still being perfected, but she should be ready by the time you get there. She's one of the first of a cross-species experiments on AI creation. A Sangheili by the name of Fune 'Suttin volunteered her brain for use in the experiment should she be killed and her brian still usable."

The Arbiter parted his jaws slightly at the thought of there being more sangheili in Section Four.

"About three days ago, She was monitoring a band of Jiralhanae - Kig-yar pirates when she was spotted by them. Another operative managed to recover her, but the injuries were fatal, however were mostly to her legs and back. Her brian was still usable, so the process of neural mapping began when she died." The Admiral paused.

The Arbiter lowered his head slighty, saddened by the news of a dead sangheili, and a female, nevertheless.

"Last report I heard, it seemed to be going very well." He concluded.

He then brought up the holograph of a Jackal. The Kig-yar held a modified beam rifle in his right arm and had a Kig-yar combat harness from prior to their covenant induction, complete with a gudi, which was a Kig-yar hat which looked like a human fedora.

"This is Zhab Nin. Famous among the Kig-yar for being a daring sniper. Responsible for the assassination of a Queen on Eayn, their homeworld. No known associates, Little Covenant service and a love of sniping, he's the team's sniper." The Admiral informed them.

The Sangheili hadn't heard of the Kig-yar, and it seemed that the Spartan had not either. The Admiral swiped away the Kig-yar and brought up a Brute. The Arbiter stiffened slightly at the sight of the Brute. While most of his race would kill a Brute on sight, The Arbiter was much more tolerant of the species, but still shared his bit of hatred towards the species. He wondered if that would hinder his judgement during tense situations involving him and the Jiralhanae.

"This is Jimeanius of the Trimmean pack. He was exiled before the Great Schism for not wanting to take part in the genocide of the Sangheili. He made his way an NCA colony, then to a station in the Sol System. We enlisted him voluntarily. Little Covenant experience, His role is Ranged supporting fire." The Admiral finished.

He closed the holograph. He then brought up a pair of Unggoy. The two wore Covenant combat harnesses and held one Fuel Rod cannon each.

"These are Liyik and Limid." Walker announced.

The Arbiter gave a faint snort. Liyik and Limid were practically Unggoy celebrities amongst the Sangheili. They were known for being some of the most independent Unggoy to ever serve the Covenant, but while there were other Unggoy that had resisted or done worse than them, they were well known for the failed execution and shaming of their executor, as well as their partial insanity.

"These two are brothers, almost inseparable since they joined the Covenant. They were spec ops grunts and were, and still are demolition "experts". They were accused of abandoning their unit, and were due to be executed. They overpowered their executor and were pardoned as a result, then discharged shortly after for their mental state being questionable. We've given them evals, and they seem to be sane ninety percent of the time." The Admiral shrugged.

He then brought up a Hunter pair. The Arbiter leaned forward slightly. He noticed the Chief doing the same beside him. The Hunters didn't seem to be wearing combat gear, but instead, they had ship maintenance gear.

"These are Dipugi Xisi Moldo and Nomuxu Xisi Moldo. They are bond brothers, and instead of the warrior path, they chose the path of mechanics. They're not Huragok, but they're as close as we can get. We… don't know anything about their past. We know they worked in ship repair, but that's all. They'll be in charge of keeping you ship running while you have been deployed. But, they are capable of combat, in the event that it is necessary." The Admiral said.

"Can I propose a question, sir?" The Spartan asked.

The Admiral nodded. "Ask away, Master Chief."

"What ship are we getting? A prowler?" The Spartan questioned.

Walker smiled slightly. "Oh, hell no. For the best, you get the best. You're getting the _Spearhead of Dawn_."

The Arbiter felt his spirits lift at that. At least they wouldn't be throwaway soldiers, they would have some decent equipment.

"When do we deploy?" The Sangheili asked, rising from his seat.

Walker smiled slightly. "Right now. Your first mission- well, "mission" is to pick up the rest of your squad from our other station in the Tau Ceti System. Once you've picked them up, you'll head to you hideout in the system and await your first REAL mission. You two, being the veterans of The Squad, are the commanders. Arbiter, being the former Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, you are in the ships organic captain. Master Chief, you are the field commander, In charge of force deployment for ground missions. Now, both of you meet up with your crew aboard the Spearhead; Dipugi, Nomuxu and Cortana and procede to Tau Ceti."

 **I+-+-+I**

The Bridge of the Spearhead was quiet. Cortana was waiting on the holoterminal in the bridge. The Spartan and the Sangheili walked in.

"Well then." Cortana smiled. "Here we are, on yet another adventure."

The Spartan took a seat near one of the consoles. The Arbiter paused and gave the Spartan a quick glance. The Spartan had no emotion written on the helmet. He then gave a slow nod. The Sangheili stepped towards the captain's chair and sat. The chair creaked and sagged slightly, but seemed to hold his weight well.

"Receiving COMs from HQ." Cortana announced. "We're cleared to take off."

The Arbiter scratched his bottom right jaw for a second.

"Fire up our engines." He said.

"Engines online. Vertical thrusters warming up. Hangar doors opening. Ready for launch in ten seconds." Cortana informed them.

"Go when ready, Cortana." The Arbiter replied.

"Aye. Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Online." She grinned.

The thrusters of the Spearhead roared. The Modified frigate rumbled and began to lift. The hangar room was filled with the ear-splitting noise of the engines. The Arbiter felt the G-forces begin to increase. The frigate shook violently. The grey walls of the hangar fell away, turning to sand for a split second, and then all they could see through the bridge window was sky.

"Ascend us to one kilometer." The Sangheili ordered.

"Aye."

The frigate begin to slow, and then slowed to a crawl and hovered over the island. Below them was an endless sea, above them an endless sky, dotted with few clouds.

"Awaiting orders, Arbiter." Cortana said.

"Cortana, Take us into orbit." He announced.

"Engines online, burning at 30% reactor capacity. We will achieve orbit in three minutes." She informed them. "Also, Dipugi and Nomuxu are on their way to the bridge."

The Arbiter inhaled in surprise, then spun his chair around to face the door. On his way, he noticed that the Master Chief had removed his helmet. The Arbiter had not been one-hundred percent certain that the Spartan had not been a robot of some kind, But this did confirm it. It seemed wrong to see the Spartan helmet-less. But before he could dwell on it, the doors to the bridge opened. The two Hunters walked in. They were near identical: They had Hunter gear that had had most of its armor shrunk and removed. They had a series of tools on their Fuel Rod arm and a pair of braces that they would use to push heavy objects or hold them up.

Their translation software was basic. The words were simply pasted into the sentence with no emotion, but the translator served a single purpose, which it fulfilled easily.

"Greetings. Sangheili and Human. It is a… pleasure to meet you." The one on the right said. "I am Nomuxu. My brother is Dipugi. We will serve as the ships maintainers."

It didn't help that you could hear the grunts and growls of the Lekgolo over the translation.

"Very well." The Arbiter replied. "Do you know who we are?"

"Yes. We do. And now, we must go. The ship's third reactor is still shaking down. We should oversee it, and ensure it does not endanger the ship." Nomuxu said.

"Then… Go." The Sangheili replied.

The two nodded and left the room.

"That was surprisingly brief, considering that they share this ship with us." Cortana remarked.

"Lekgolo were never social creatures." The Arbiter muttered.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _The Spearhead accelerated over the British Isles, slowly climbing into the atmosphere. The sky darkened as it did so. Above the planet lay the heart of humanity's empire, or at least, what was left of it following the war._

 _It was hoped that the Galactic Alliance would eventually rebuild what had been destroyed, but it would take years to do so. More than it had taken to destroy, certainly._

 _The frigate rose through the higest cloud layers. It's engines burned brightly against the sky. Its hull shone in the light of Sol. Above the planet below lay humanities defences: Orbital defence platforms jutting up into space, almost a kilometer long. Between these drifted a UNSC fleet, battle-ready and armed._

 _The frigate turns to the side. The captain, a sangheili; Infact, the first sangheili to ever command a human frigate, gives an order. The ship vanishes as it cloak activates. The UNSC fleet does not notice. The frigate, hidden from sight, passes through the guards of the planet and into deep space._

 _Still invisible, It adjusts itself, aiming towards its destination star, Tau Ceti. The captain gives another order. The ship's AI complies. At the front of the frigate, space begins to distort. To any watchers, it seems like a slipspace portal has opened in the middle of space, for no reason whatsoever. A few seconds pass, and the frigate enters another dimension. The swirling gateway shrinks and collapses into nothing but a faint ripple._

 **I+-+-+I**

 **I wanted to add more to this chapter, but I was short of time, so I had to split it in two. Chapter four will be much longer and will have some action in it. I'm trying to keep each chapter a weekly thing, but this evening is cutting it close for me, so the next chapter may be a week or two late.**

 **Review, Maybe?**


	5. Chapter 4: Tau Ceti

**Chapter 4: Tau Ceti**

 _FAR Station, Tau Ceti. January 13_ _th_

Nhab Nin sat upon a waiting chair in the ONI station departure room. His gudi lay across his face. Jimeanius, the Jiralhanae paced the room restlessly. He inhaled loudly in boredom and stared out the glass window into space. The warm light of Tau Ceti bathed the station room. Nhab sighed.

"Peace, Jiralhanae." Sighed the Kig-yar. "We're not high priority to them. They'll be here in a few hours. Take a nap."

The Jiralhanae turned and snarled, obviously not used to being talked down to in such a way by a Kig-yar.

"I grow restless, Jackal. There is little to do aboard this station." Jimeanius muttered. "How can simply sit there and do nothing?"

"I have all I need, My Beam Rifle, Protection from my enemies, and peace. With all that, I'm free and happy to do as I wish." Zhab laughed.

"Ohhh. Very prophetic." Liyik whispered to his brother, Limid.

Limid laughed. The Kig-yar snapped the Unggoy. The two were unimpressed.

"Kig-yar thinks he's scary. Ohhh." Limid laughed.

Jimeanius snorted, then returned to staring out into space.

"Imbound slipspace signature." A voice blared over an intercom.

The Kig-yar raised his gudi slightly to allow his eyes to see. Usually it would say that is was an anomaly, not a signnature. That was enough to tell Zhab that they were expecting this signature. Perhaps their ride was here. In the distance, he noticed a small blue ball in the distance, which disappeared after a few seconds. A dark, grey ship turned towards the station and began its approach. Zhab tried to examine the ship's profile, but it was far too far away to properly examine it, but he could see that it was dark and grey. A human ship then. He wasn't too concerned by that. After all, this was a human organisation.

Static broke over the room. "This is the UNSC _Spearhead of Dawn_ , preparing to dock." It was a human female voice.

Zhab stood up and mounted his beam rifle on his back, and his combat harness physically locked it to his back using a series of mechanical arms, not magnetically. The human ship closed distance rapidly. They all watched quietly. After a few minutes, the ship slowed and turned to dock. It slowly approached the station, heading for the docking port on the boarding bridge. There was a clang.

"Ship docked. Pressuring bridge." The intercom informed them.

They all stood up and took several steps towards the door. The Brute and Kigyar spared a quick glance while the grunts jumped around, laughing insanely. Which, of course, they kind of were. There was quiet for a few seconds. There were then several clangs from the other side of the door. Then the door slid open. Light bathed the room. The Kig-yar raised his arm to shield his eyes from the light. The light suddenly died, revealing four figures standing in the corridor before them.

"Well…" The Jackal muttered to the Jiralhanae beside him, "Maybe they do care about us."

 **I+-+-+I**

John stepped out of the _Spearhead_ 's airlock, into the Tau Ceti station's docking bridge. The Arbiter and the two hunters followed. A year ago, John would have been looking for the best place to run without get shot by the Elite and the Hunters, but now, here he was, with those said aliens being his companions. He would never understand it.

The door ahead of them opened as they approached, revealing an arrival/departure lounge, or so it appeared. The light from some of the Spearhead's lights flooded the room for a split second, before Cortana dimmed it.

"Whoops." She muttered over the team COM.

The dimming of light revealed four figures in the room. Two laughing Unggoy, presumablely Liyik and Limid, suddenly stopped laughing and stared in disbelief. A Brute stared aswell, Jaw hanging freely. A Jackal also stood with them. He stood, obviously surprised. He muttered something to the Brute, which the Brute was too dumbfounded to hear.

The Master Chief was, despite his humble opinion, was definitely a dumbfounding sight, especially among non-humans. The Mjolnir armor was his identity to everyone who knew him as a figure, but not personally. The Arbiter, was also an intimidating figure, clad in a mix of his traditional and modern Elite armor. The Hunters, of course, although clad in what they called "Worker" Setups, were always an intimidating sight.

There was silence for a minute as both parties looked over each other. Then the Unggoy broke the ice by running over to one of the Hunters. (The Chief had yet to figure out which one was which) They stopped at the feet of the Hunter. One reached his hand into the hunter leg gap, where the Lekgolo worms that would up the creature were exposed to allow leg movement. The Hunter immediately jerked back and growled. His brother also turned, growling faintly.

"Touch me again, Unggoy, and I'll crush you into a speck." He warned.

"Hmm. I'll think I'll pass." The offending Grunt replied.

The other grunt bounded across the corridor, stopping directly in front of the Arbiter and stared up at him like a child does when he asks his parents for candy.

"Do you have any food nipples?" He asked.

The Arbiter's bottom two jaws parted in confusion.

"Uh…" The Sangheili paused.

"Over here, boys right inside the ship." Cortana suddenly stated over the COM on the ship.

The two grunts jumped and ran towards the airlock of the _Spearhead_. Once they entered the airlock, Cortana closed both doors, trapping the two inside the airlock. It was comical.

"Oh… Sorry." She replied to them banging on both doors in an attempt to escape. "I lied."

"Finally. Some intelligent conversation." The Jackal muttered. "I never want to be stuck with those two again."

"Are those two always that… crazy?" The Chief asked.

"You have no idea, Demon." The Brute replied.

There a pause, then a pair of doors from inside the station. A pair of marines escorted a scientist out. The Scientist held an AI chip.

"Ah. Section four's 'The Squad'." He replied. "All here at last. You are almost ready. I hold here your final member."

He raised the AI chip. The hologram of a Sangheili appeared standing on it. It was the same blue that Cortana used.

"Greetings." It said. "I am Galactic Alliance AI VLA 9162-8. Also known as Vala."

The Arbiter stepped forward, obviously intrigued by the idea of an Sangheili AI. John was, in fairness, rather interested in the idea of it, but he doubted that it could really replace Cortana.

"She is fully ready for ground combat. I believe the matrix on your ship has been prepped for having two AI active at once." The Scientist stated, offering the chip to the Arbiter.

The Elite hesitated, then took the chip. The AI's hologram looked up at him.

"Well. Looks like we're going to have great fun, Arbiter Thel 'Vadam." She remarked.

He parted his jaws slightly in the Sangheili equivalent of a smile.

"If you say so." He replied, and placed the chip in one of his armors magnetic clips.

"You do know where to go first, Right?" The Scientist asked.

"To find our hideout in the system." The Chief replied.

"Yes. I have the co-ordinates for it. I'll have a guys at hangar control transmit it to you before you leave." The Scientist checked his watch. "Which you should be doing around now." He remarked.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _A few minutes, the_ Spearhead of Dawn

The _Spearhead_ had a number of unique systems on board, for instance, triple reactors, Dual SMACs and, most notably, a complex on-board war games simulator. Outside this room, the entire squad waited in a side room. This was a test for the entire squad, to see if they were capable of working together.

In the side room, the team selected their loadouts for the sim. According to the Cortana, the whole thing was based in hard light, which she manipulated to create the sims. She had to move the hardlight around them to create the illusion of a map in a small "wing" of the frigate.

For this sim, The Chief would be using the Sangheili AI as the combat AI for the sim. The group of different aliens stood awkwardly in the room while Cortana loaded the sim in the room next to them. All that could be heard was the clanking of armor and the hum of the _Spearhead_ 's Engines.

"Simulation ready in… Twenty seconds." Cortana announced.

The Chief's professionalism kicked in, and he stood up.

"Com check." He announced.

"SQ – 1, Online." The Arbiter announced.

"SQ – 2, Here." The Jackal, Zhab, replied.

"SQ – 3." The Brute muttered.

"SQ – 4, here!" One of the the two grunts shouted.

"SQ – 5, waiting." The other replied.

The Hunters would not be taking part in the sim, after all, they were there purely for maintenance.

"SQ – AI, Online." The Sangheili AI announced.

"COM link to UNSC _Spearhead of Dawn_ , Online." Cortana replied. "Simulation loaded. Doors open."

The Chief led the way into the room. As soon as he entered, the loadout he had selected; A Battle rifle with dual SMGs. He knew they weren't there, but he could feel them.

"Very well done, Cortana." He complimented.

The room he was in was the a corridor of a UNSC ship. It was the drop pod room. Lines of UNSC HEV ODST pods were lined upon the walls, waiting to drop. The other members of The Squad entered the room, marveling at the weapons that just appeared in their hands.

"Objective: Board the pods." Vala stated.

The Chief complied. The Arbiter also boarded a pod, surprised to find that it fit him well. The Brute also did the same. The Grunts fought over a pod until the Kig-yar separated the two of them, forcing them into different pods, before taken his own.

"All crew boarded. Countdown engaged." Vala announced.

Cortana's voice broke over the COM. "Scenario: 0638. A Covenant splinter group has stolen a pair of UNSC HAVOK nuclear weapons. They are transporting it to a hidden base on the planet. Sources have stated that no-one outside the base knows of its location. Your object is to eliminate the team escorting the nukes before they hand it over to a team from the base. There is a ten point five kilometer stretch where they can be intercepted. Good look."

The HEV pods detached and fell. The Unggoy screamed. The pods feel quickly through the planets upper atmosphere. The COM silence was only broken by the screams of the Grunts. The Chief hoped that they were worth the bother and annoyance that they were putting them all through.

"One minute to impact." Vala announced.

The pods tore through the medium height clouds of the planet. The System's star shone above them. The ground below them seemed fresh and sunny.

"Thirty seconds."

They headed through the lower clouds.

"Cortana, Do you have a topography map for the mission?" The Chief asked.

"I have it, Master Chief." Vala replied, sounding annoyed.

She displayed it in front of him. He say their landing point marked in red. A blue line represented the path the nukes' escorts would use. The HEV pod engaged slowdown procedures. The Chief jerked in his seat, and then the pod fired its thrusters for the last kilometer. Finally, the pod slammed hard into the ground. The Chief waited for a count of five, then popped the hatch. He drew his BR and stepped into the green plains of the planet. The other members of the Squad climbed out. The Arbiter and the Brute seemed unaffected by the trip down. The Kig-yar seemed rather disorientated by the fall, but he seemed functional. The Unggoy staggered in circles.

The plains around them were plain, with small hills, which prevented them from being visible, but they could still see the tops of the hills, along with a short stretch of the path visible.. A single tall tree stuck up in the distance.

"Jackal." The Chief said. "Can you climb that tree and tell us where the escort is?"

"Gotcha." He snapped, strapping his rifle to his back and sprinting to the tree. He lunged at it, successfully climbing it in the space of a few seconds, becoming lost in the mass of leaves. The rustled slightly, as if by the wind.

The Squad gathered at the foot of the hill the tree sat upon. The Jackal opened the COM.

"I see them… They're coming this way, they're using a turret-less Wraith to hold the bombs." He replied.

"How many?" The Chief asked.

"Let's see… Ten- No fifteen Sangheili, Three Kig-yar, Twenty clueless Grunts." He stated. "The path is on the other side of the hill to the east of you."

The Spartan turned. He grinned under his helmet.

"Stay up there, snipe at will once we engage." He ordered the Kig-yar.

"Yes."

"Weapons up, everyone." The Spartan announced.

The Arbiter drew his Carbine. The Brute drew a Spiker. The pair of Unggoy raised their fuel rod cannons. The Chief began a slow, quiet advance up the hill. The group reached the top, with them keeping low to avoid being noticed. Even the Unggoy were quiet. The Chief scoped his rifle and looked down the hill, onto the path. About one hundred meters away, the group of Splinter Covenant advanced.

"Wait a second." The Arbiter began. "These guys have human nuclear weapons. Is there any danger if they are hit by crossfire?"

The Chief paused, but Vala spoke up.

"No. Human weapons have to be remotely or Manually detonated for a nuclear explosion. They have no degree of powerful explosives inside them to be activated by the exchange." She told them.

"Very well." The Sangheili exhaled.

"Once they reach the bottom of the hill, open fire." The Chief said. "Until then, hold and stay low."

Even the Unggoy obeyed without question. The Splinter group advanced to about fifty meters from the bottom of the hill.

"I cannot get a clear shot." The Kig-yar growled. "They just went under my line of fire. I'll give you guys cover should you need to retreat."

The Remnant reached the bottom of the hill. The Chief stood up, shouldered his BR and fired. The shots impacted upon a sangheili below. Three shots slammed into the Elite's shield, and it darted to the right. The second burst broke the shield and impacted into the head of Sangheili. He fell. The Arbiter rained down Carbine rounds, taking down a single Sangheili before he even drew a weapon.

The Grunts at the rear of the group, behind the Wraith, drew their weapons in considerable panic at the ambush. Liyik and Limid jumped up and blew apart the Unggoy group. The Sangheili in the front paused at the ferocity of the Unggoy attack. They hadn't even got off a shot before half their number had been blown apart.

The Brute's spiker round tore through a Sangheili's shields and sent him to the ground. The Arbiter and the Chief combined firepower, taking down Sangheili in single volleys. Liyik and Limid turned their fuel rods upon the front lines of the remaining Sangheili and Kig-yar. They opened fire, blowing them apart, empting their entire clip.

"A job well done!" One of them barked.

A beam rifle fired. There was a cry from elite.

"Sorry. I saw a survivor making a break for it." The Kig-yar notified them over the COM. "And another. Wait a sec-"

The Beam rifle fired again. A thud followed.

"So." The Chief said, walking down the hill to the Wraith, which was mostly untouched. "What now do we do with these."

"OBJECTIVE COMPLETE." Cortana's voice broke over the COM. "Simulation ending. Please exit via the door to your right."

A door appeared out of thin air. The Squad exited it, only to find themselves back in the waiting room from before the sim had started.

"Simulation ended." Cortana announced.

 **I+-+-+I**

Spearhead of Dawn _, Bridge, January 13th_

The Arbiter returned to the bridge with Vala's chip. He was alone when he reached the room. The others had retired to the "Common" room, which was a concept that was completely alien to him. He walked over to the terminal and inserted Vala. Her hologram appeared. She gave a faint smile in the form of parting her jaws.

"Back in here, again." She said.

If there was one thing that the Arbiter had noticed about the Sangheili AI was that she lacked Cortana's sarcasm, instead being very literal about everything.

"A pleasure to have you." Cortana replied.

"Where are we now?" Asked the Arbiter.

"In an asteroid field in Tau Ceti." Cortana informed him.

On the holotable in the center of the room, a map of the system appeared. Their destination was inside the field. It was marked as a red point, whereas the ship was a blue point.

"Any trouble?" He asked.

"Nothing." Cortana replied.

The Arbiter sighed and took the Captain's chair, staring out into the blue-green cloud in the distance. Asteroids drifted around the hull of the ship.

"Hold on." Cortana paused. " A blip."

The Sangheili turned his chair around. "A blip?"

"Interesting… It's gone now, but it was definitely there." Cortana replied.

"I detected it as well, but as Cortana said, it's not there anymore." Vala stated.

"Scan again. Also, warm up our weapons and heat up the reactors." The Arbiter ordered.

"But, there's nothing there. It was probably just an material laden asteroid reflecting our scanners." Cortana protested.

"Never hurts to be cautious." Vala said.

The Arbiter nodded. There was silence for a few minutes. The ship drifted through the field in silence.

"Nothing detected." Cortana repeated for the umpteenth time.

"Scan again. Keep us on cour-" He began.

"Ship detected!" Vala suddenly shouted. "Holding position on an asteroid. It just powered up."

"What kind of ship? Human or Covenant?" He asked.

"Receiving Message." Cortana informed him.

"Patch it through." The Arbiter ordered.

A grainy video of a Kig-Yar Queen resolved itself on the main screen of the bridge.

"Stand and Deliver!" Hissed the Queen. "Your money or your life!"

"They must new to this." The Arbiter muttered. "Tell them to Yiofer **(Sangheili swear I decline to translate.)** off."

"Sent." Cortana sounded amused.

"35% to engines. Get us outside the asteroid field." The Arbiter ordered. "Anything on that ship?"

"Got a full scan." Vala announced.

She displayed the hologram of a CPV class destroyer. It was damaged in patches, but seemed intact and functional. It broke away from the asteroid and accelerated quickly.

"That's… odd..." Cortana remarked. "Most reports show that this ship usually is slower than this."

"Get me a visual." The Arbiter asked.

A picture of the destroyer appeared on a right screen. It burned full out, also trying to get out of the field.

"Ahh…" The Arbiter parted his jaws. "The Kig-yar are naïve. Most ships never go this fast, as the ship is hard to maneuver as it is, but at that speed it's nearly impossible to turn it."

"I understand." Cortana replied.

The frigate rose up out of the asteroid field and slowed down as it headed away from the destroyer.

"They're moving to intercept." Cortana informed the Arbiter.

"Prepare the cannon." He replied, referring to the MAC.

"MAC charging." Vala announced.

The _Spearhead_ suddenly swept back, aiming directly for the destroyer. The destroyer turned sluggishly. Points on it glowed an angry orange and red as the plasma torpedoes charged. The frigate's SMACs were at 80% charge. The destroyer fired six plasma torpedoes.

"They've fired six torpedoes!" Cortana yelled.

"Brace for impact!" The Arbiter yelled over the COM and grabbed the bars of the holotable.

The torpedoes slammed into the _Spearhead_ 's shields. The ship jerked slightly.

"Shields down to 96%" Cortana informed them.

"Fire a missile pod." The Arbiter ordered. Hopefully this would distract the destroyer while the MACs charged.

"Firing." Vala announced.

The BOWMEN torpedo pod broke off the ship. The blue torpedoes, around 16 of them, accelerated towards the unprepared the destroyer. The torpedoes slammed into the destroyers, breaking the shields with only a single torpedo, the rest slammed into the destroyer, literally ripping it apart into mere fragments of hull.

"Woah." The Arbiter gasped as he saw the explosion light up space.

The humans weren't kidding about adapting the technology of both races. The MACs wouldn't even be necessary. The frigate flew through the debris, knocking it out of the way. It barely fazed the shields. The Arbiter rested back in his chair.

"Fools." He muttered as he watched a single piece of debris bounce off the shield.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **So, here's some action scene for you guys. I don't normally ask for Reviews, but seeing as it's been two years since I seriously did any writing, Please, Please give this a review.**

 **Thanks**


	6. Chapter 5: The Kig-yar Rebellion

**Chapter 5: The Kig-yar Rebellion**

 **I've actually just realised that there is no disclaimer in this story. So here's one: I own nothing, The Halo franchise is owned by Microsoft.**

 _Common Room, The Spearhead of Dawn, Janurary 13_ _th_ _, 2553_

The common room was not the best place on the ship to be, but the Chief wished to see how his new Squad relaxed after a mission. The grunts were charged up with energy, and chased each other around the room. Zhab and the Brute, Jimaenius, played what seemed to be the former Covenant equivilent of Go Fish.

John leaned on the wall beside a couch in the common room. Jimaenius growled as the Kig-yar won yet another game. He immediately challenged the Jackal to another game. As far as the Chief knew, they weren't gambling over anything.

Suddenly, the Arbiter's voice blared over the Interaship COM. "Brace for impact!"

Everyone in the common room froze, including the Chief. After a mere second, his instincts kicked in, and he seized a metal bar attached to the ship wall. Before anyone else had moved, the _Spearhead_ 's hull moved rapidly. But only once. The two grunts were thrown to the ground, yelping as they did so. The Kig-yar and Jiralhanae barely moved at all.

John released the bar. Above them, he heard a missile pod detach from the hull. For a minute, there was silence, then Cortana's voice broke over the COM:

"Target destroyed."

The Chief paused. That was extremely quick for a space battle. He hadn't even heard the MAC discharge. He turned and left the common room, heading to the bridge. The elevator took about thirty seconds to reach the bridge floor.

He walked down the hallway and into the bridge. The Arbiter was alone in the room, staring out into space. Outside the ship, asteroids drifted around the Spearhead.

"What just happened?" The Spartan asked, walking into the room.

There was no etiquette for a non-human captain that the Chief knew of. The Arbiter turned to locate him.

"Some foolish Kig-yar pirates attempted to attack us. They were no match for our weapons." He replied.

John nodded and sat in a chair on the other side of the holotable.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

The Arbiter returned his gaze to space. "We have coordinates, but I... Do not know."

"Our hideout." Cortana answered. "A large enough unnamed asteroid in the field. Apparently, it has a large hollow for us to dock the Spearhead inside."

"Very well." The Sangheili replied. "How fare the rest?"

"They're fine." The Chief sighed.

"In all honesty, spartan, what do you think of the rest of them?" The Arbiter asked.

The Spartan paused. "They hold no resentment or anger over the war. We were the only two who actually fought the war. I feel like they're new hands and we're the old veterans."

The Arbiter tilted his head slightly at the remark, not understanding some of what was said.

"I think the same, If that's what you meant by that... Pah. We're friends, I should believe, or as close to friends as we're going to get." He paused.

The Chief nodded slightly.

"Out of all the being in the galaxy that have tried to be my friends, none, excluding Johnson, have come this close to being my friend... And an elite, in the end." He shook his head.

"Where did the Spartans come from?" The Sangheili asked.

He paused, and then proceeded to tell the Arbiter the story of the Spartan IIs and how he assumed he was the last one. The Arbiter, in turn, told the human his story. Neither left any details of what they'd done out. And when they were done, John felt like some barrier between them had lifted. During the talk, John had removed his helmet. The two looked on each other with their own eyes. They did not judge the other on the experiences of the other.

"So. What now?" The Arbiter asked.

The chief got up and headed to an elevator, which would take him to the ship's armoury.

"I'm going to get this suit cleaned." He replied. "I've been wearing it for several months now."

The Sangheili snorted.

The Spartan walked out of the room.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Unknown location; January 14th, 2553_

Around two dozen figures offloaded boxes after boxes. The room they did it in was illuminated by few lights. It was nearly impossible for the mission coordinator to see what exactly was going on. However, the workers had better eyes then him.

"We have nearly finished offloading the weapons, most noble Prophet." A brute informed the Prophet floating beside him.

"Do the Kig-yar have the supplies nessesary for the trade?" He asked quietly.

The Jiralhanae held up a quota.

"Yes, Holy One."

"Very good. I want to get out of here before the Galactic Alliance fleet starts snooping."

"We've offloaded 172 Crates of weapons, 230 Crates of ammunition, 2 Anti-Matter charges and three human nuclear weapons. The Kig-yar rebels have supplied us with sixteen tons of grians, two tons of fruits, and a tonne of haircare products."

The prophet sighed internally. Brutes required tons of haircare products to keep their fur in good shape. Very few will every think of cutting their fur, even to try fitting into their combat harnesses.

"Any speculation on remaining time?" He asked.

The brute turned and yelled something at a group of Brutes hefting some boxes into the ship. They shouted a reply in their native tongue.

"I estimate two more minutes." He finally replied.

"It's about time."

They were watching the operation from a balcony above the shipyard. The Kig-yar commander of the Rebellion here climbed up the ladder to the balcony.

"Our thanks, hierarch, for such magnificent weapons of war. These will be of great use to the cause." The Jackal said.

"Do you have a plan?" The prophet asked.

"Bomb some key cities with these weapons of mass destruction you have given us, then take out the army and seize the government, breaking off of the Galactic Alliance, finally bringing peace to the Kig-yar." The leader snarled, raising a hand in anticipation.

"You have no plans for the off world communication array?" The prophet asked.

"No... But it is unimportant to our pl-" The leader replied.

The hierarch raised a hand.

"The communication array is the key to this planet. If you do not take it, the Council of Queens will request help from the more powerful races of the GA. You and your rebels may be able to take on the Royal armies, but can you take an army of Humans and Sangeheili working with them?"

The Kig-yar paused.

"I was unaware the council could call upon military support." He replied.

"Well, they can. Take out the COM array, and then you'll just have to contend with the Kig-yar of this planet. And maybe even we'll send support of our own." The prophet replied.

The Kig-yar's eyes widened. Having Brutes and Drones supporting the rebellion would be a major asset, even if the GA did arrive.

"Thank you, noble one." He stammered, backing into a bow. "We make our move tomorrow."

"Very Good." The prophet replied. "We'll be waiting."

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Sim room, UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, January 29th,_

Zhab snapped in annoyance as his lost shot broke the Elite's shields without injuring the Sangheili. The holographic beam rifle that the sim gave him was good, but nothing could truly replace his own little beauty.

He drew his backup, a modified plasma pistol with a sight and shot delay for accuracy. The simmed Elite drew an energy sword and charged at him. He snapped off several shots at the charging alien, but it was too late. The Sangheili swung the sword, and it cut straight through the Kig-yar's chest. A dull shook and paralysis from the waist down hit him.

He growled in anger for a second, then composed himself. This was the effect of the sim. Instead of cutting him open the Sangheili's blade would pas through him, giving him a mild shock and paralyzing him for the rest of the sim. The shock was not the main deterrent. It was the loss of pride upon getting taken down. It was a completive thing amongst the sim. They worked well as a team, but in Free-for-all survival, there was a definite pride thing about it.

This sim was of a human factory that was a bridge over a river getting overrun by Covenant on one side, and Flood on the other. Liyik and Limid were already downed, but they seemed to lack the mental capacity to care about pride, as when one went down, the other would often stop and start chatting with the down one, until he was downed or the sim ended.

They had been at this for only ten minutes, but this was easily the most hectic sim yet. On one side, the flood poured through smashed windows and doors, the other the Covenant poured in. In the center, they met. The majority of the fighting took place in the center, where the flood smashed into the Covvies without mercy, receiving none in return.

Jimaenius was on the top of a box of crates in the Covenant zone, raining down spikes from his rifle mercilessly, a brute shot strapped tightly to his back, but emptied. His combat harness resembled the ones that the Covenant loyalists had used at the end of the war, except that this one was marked in white. The occasional shots fired at the Jiralhanae were taken by the armor's shields.

The Spartan and the Sangeheili stood in the flood zone, back to back. Their rifles blared almost continuously, except for cooldown and reloading, in which they would melee any approaching enemies. They had a five meter circle of space between them and the flood. The flood seemed to have given up engaging them.

The hunters had participated in this sim as well, unusual as it was for them to do any combat. Impervious to flood infection, and clad in combat armor, their fuel rods blew apart attackers and their shields literally smashed combat forms to pieces. As the Kig-yar watched, one of them smashed through a tank form, sending pieces of the shattered biomass across the room.

Then the room froze. The flood and Covenant stopped moving. Only the actual living beings moved. Their weapons did not. Their armor did not either, as those were generated by the sim.

"Simulation suspended." The human AI said. "The Squad's presence has been requested on the bridge. We have received a message from the Admiral."

The simulation faded, leaving an empty white walled room. There was silence for a minute.

"Let us go." The Sangheili muttered. "I wonder if they've finally got a mission for us."

 **I+-+-+I**

The Squad marched onto the bridge. Cortana was waiting on the holotable, an image of the admiral frozen beside her. She looked vaguely curious. John took a seat, along with the rest of the Squad.

"Well, Cortana, What have we got?" He asked.

"This just came in, directed at us, shot through a slipspace cannon." She replied.

"Well then…" The Sangheili said. "Let it play."

Cortana snapped her fingers. The Admiral's image began to move as the recording started to play.

"Hello. This is a recording, so I'm not going to stop for you to reply… Anyway, there has been a rebellion on Eayn, the Kig-yar homeworld." He began.

Everyone turned to the Jackal in the bridge with them. He seemed unfazed by the news. In fact, he muttered that he had no love for Eayn. John tunred back to the message.

"-t approximately 23:42 SMT, January 15th, a small group of Kig-yar rebels attempted to seize Eayn's communication array. After a short firefight, they were driven away by the guards with minor loses on both sides. The rebels then made another attempt to seize the array a few hours later, this time driving away the Royal Guards. As you know, Kig-yar society is matriarchal, so the Council of Queens convened and made plans to respond. During the meeting, the rebels revealed that they had two anti-mater charges along with three HAVOK class nukes, and threatened major cities with bombing. The rebels revealed that they had a sizable army, roughly around 4 million altogether. They also had a large amount of arms." The Admiral paused to take a breath. "The Queens agreed on a course of action and, on the 17th, attacked the array, seizing the array, broadcasting to the Galactic Alliance that they were under attack and needed assistance. The Alliance Council received the message, and a course of action was decide upon. This course of action was a retaliatory strike force sent to Eayn to assist the Royal Army."

The Admiral snapped his fingers, revealing another video, which immediately began to play. It was a news broadcast for the GA, being given by a woman.

"Three hours ago, Word reached that the Kig-yar homeworld of Eayn had been attacked by rebels who were attempting to seize the planet. The council of the GA has decided that military action will be taken, and a 40,000 strong task force has been prepared to depart for Eayn from Sangheilios. This force will consist of 10,000 humans, 10,000 Sangheili and 20,000 Unggoy, and a fleet of 10 ships." She announced.

It seemed as though the news was being broadcast in every single language at once, but only one language at once. It was difficult to explain. The scene switched to a Sangheili who was missing two of his jaws on the left of his face.

"R'tas?" Thel asked.

"We have the leader of the task force, High Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum." The newswoman said, and it switched to the Sangheili talking.

"This is the first joint mission of the Galactic Alliance. The Kig-yar are the mappers of the trade routes for the Alliance. We will not abandon them. At my command, the fleet will depart for Eayn, to victory!" He yelled, and the scene switched back to the newswoman.

"The fleet is set to depart very soon. We will have constant updates for you on the campaign." She said.

The Scene faded back to the Admiral. He was silent for a few seconds, then continued.

"That was on the 18th. Our mistake was limited by the lack of information we'd received from Eayn, we had no idea how large the rebel army actually was. We'd sent 40,000 to Eayn. The Royal Guard and rebels each numbered around 4 million soldiers each. The Rebels have a fleet as well, and they fought the Eayn defence fleet, defeating them with around 13 ships remaining. Our fleet arrived on the 19th at 16:47 SMT. We deployed immediately, dropping pods, along with dropships. The fleet engaged the rebel fleet. Both were around equally matched. Our forces arrived on the surface and made great headway against Kig-yar resistance, with around 5,000 casualties for us and 60,000 for them. The Unggoy suffered the most casualties. Our forces moved to free the array, allowing communications off world. They meet up with around 75,000 memebers of the Kig-yar Royal Army, and then marched on the array, however, they were intercepted by a rebel army of 200,000 on the 21st. Despite heavy casualties, we beat of the army and captured the array. We had around 4568 remaining following the battle. The Royal Army had around 15,984 remaining, but the rebels had lost 183,000. It was a costly victory. Since the battle, we have been stuck on the defensive. The GA Council is still in deliberation on what to do next. The fleet has been severely reduced, having only three ships left, but having destroyed the enemy fleet. However, the ships are too damaged to be of any use to the armies below."

"But, who's arming them?" Jimaenius, the Brute, asked.

As though reading the Jiralhanae's mind, the Admiral answered the question.

"We sent several spies into Eayn to find out where they were getting armed from. We revealed that the rebels were being armed by the Covenant Loyalists. We tracked fleet of their own, hiding out in the Eayn system, arming the rebels and preparing to take their own strike. So, your mission simple. Disable the Loyalist fleet and stop them from arming the rebels, for as long as possible. This will give the Council time to form up fleet an launch an attack against the rebels. How you disable this is up to you. This message was sent on the 29th." The Admiral finished, and his message faded.

John scratched his chin. The mission was given. He turned to the Squad behind him. He grinned slightly.

"Everyone, get your gear, and let's go." He ordered.

Thel turned to Cortana.

"Fire up the slipspace drive and take us to the Eayn system." He told her.

"Aye." She replied, and space in front of the Frigate distorted.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Eayn System, in orbit of planet ES IV, 30_ _th_ _of January 2553, 1:57 SMT_

The Prophet watched as his fleet moved over the surface of the planet below. Thruf, it was called. The planet was brown and heavily cratered. Their time to jump was almost nigh. The GA wouldn't wait forever before they sent reinforcements.

"Prepare for slipspace jump!" He barked over the intraship com.

He listened to the responses from the fleet. All were affirmative. The Brutes all around the bridge tapped the buttons of the Bridge, preparing for the jump. The ships of the fleet began to glow slightly as the slipspace capacitors charged.

"30%" A brute reported.

"Good." The Prophet said, his fingers aligning.

There was a sudden humming around the bridge. Several brutes jumped in shock.

"What is that?" The prophet asked in annoyance.

"Some kind of signature… Slipspace signals!" Yelled a Brute.

"Slipspace rupture detected!" Another one yelled.

A flash in the distance appeared. The Prophet squinted. A ship exploded out of slipspace. The ship accelerated towards the fleet.

"It's a human ship! Headed straight for us!" A brute yelled.

"Hard to starboard!" The prophet yelled. "All ships, charge weapons!"

The battlecruiser veered to the right as the human ship veered to their left. It was too close. The two ships shields collided. The battlecruiser rumbled.

"Shields at 66%!" A brute screamed. "The human ship has shields, too!"

The prophet swore. "Cancel the jump and destroy the humans!"

The fleet opened fire. The human ship was all too pleased to spit back. The Covenant loyalists had a fleet of around 30 ships, including 2 CAS class assault carriers and 24 CCS class battlecruiser.

Torpedoes from the Covenant whizzed towards the human ship, which fired dozens of torpedoes of its own. It was a single ship, it easily dodged the fire spat at it. The human torpedoes slammed into shields, breaking them and tearing hulls asunder.

"The _Loyal Faith_ is down!" The Brute on the sensors yelled. "So is _Our Quiet Solace_!"

Ventral beams and lasers shot through space, slamming into the human ship's shields. The human ship suddenly turned to the right and fired its main cannon directly into one of the Carriers. It struck in the bridge between the main body and bulbous nose. A mighty explosion split the deck, and the ship was ripped in half. A hush grew over the COM and the bridge as the fleet watched the 5.3km ship slowly blow itself apart. The human ship pulled away from the fleet, attempting it's escape, the prophet assumed.

"Follow them! Catch them, Break them! For the _Direct Fervor_!" He yelled.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _The Spearhead of Dawn,_ _Thruf, 2:00 SMT, January 20_ _th_

The Squad watched the battle from the bridge. The team was kitted out with their gear. Their armor and weapons gleamed. Cortana suddenly pulled the ship to the right. The SMAC charged. She fired into the bridge of the CAS class in front of her. The ship exploded before them. The Spearhead pulled up and began to distance themselves from the fleet. The Squad watched as the ship closed on the planets.

"Let's go." The Master Chief said, and the Squad headed for the hangar bay at the bottom of the ship.

Cortana watched them on the sensors. The Covenant fleet accelerated after them. The Squad climbed on a modified longsword, which had shields and lasers. The enemy fleet closed on the ship. Cortana was letting them, of course. The Captain (The Arbiter) had given her orders to jam the Covenant's COMs with the planet to mask the Squads arrival as the longsword descended. First, however, they had to survive the crossfire. The longsword lifted off. She sent a final COM.

"Good luck."

The longsword blasted out of the hangar… and turned into the maelstrom of the battle above the planet.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **So, No reviews… ah well. We recently 1000 reads, so thanks, people.**


	7. Chapter 6: Thruf

**Chapter 6: Thruf**

 **So, In the last week I got two reviews in the last week. YAY!**

 **So thanks to Harbinger the Reaper and Foley24 for their reviews. It's nice to have some degree of support.**

 _Longsword fighter, Thruf Orbit, 30_ _th_ _of January 2553,_

They cleared the Spearhead's shields and fell into chaos. Lasers and plasma whipped across their vision. Explosions occurred at random. The Master Chief gripped the control sticks of the long sword, executing an aileron roll. A splash of plasma whizzed by the longsword.

They dived into a gap between two cruisers. The cruisers concentrated their firepower apon them, but to no avail. The longsword plunged through and beyond, towards the surface of the planet. Seraph fighters pulled into a dive behind them.

"Enemy fighters locking on." Vala announced

The Chief pulled up and cut the thrusters. The squad of fighters whizzed by, and he reignited the engines and opened fire with the 75mm guns, ripping through the shields of the fighters and sending them spinning away, out of control.

A longsword generally had little space to sit during a flight, but it was faster and nimbler than a pelican, making in invaluable in the fight.

"How's the fight up above?" The Arbiter, Thel, asked.

"The Spearhead's shields are at 58% and the hull is holding. Cortana is still jamming surface communications." Vala replied.

Ever since the two had had the discussion about their past, John couldn't help but think of the Sangheili by his actual name, Thel. He wondered if the Sangheili felt the same.

Thel stood beside the Chief, who was sat in the longsword's pilot seat. There were the sounds of protesting and discomfort from the back, where the rest of the Squad (excluding the hunters) tried to get comfortable in the seatless back, being thrown around as the ship descended through the battle.

Three shots slammed into the aft shields. The impacts sent the beings in the back sprawling.

"Shields down to 74%" Vala announced.

"Dammit." The Spartan muttered, slamming the accelerator lever of the fighter.

The engines screamed and the fighter dived into the atmosphere. The vibrations sent anyone who wasn't strapped down flying. Thel yelled as he slammed into the ceiling and was then thrown to the rear of the longsword.

"Contact with the Spearhead has been lost." Vala announced.

"What?" The Master Chief asked.

"However, the shields were still holding at 24% prior to loss of contact. I'm guessing Cortana engaged the cloaking system." Vala replied.

"Ok. Good. Good... Wait. Is she still jamming the surface COMs?" He asked urgently.

"No. The fleet above is communicating with the bases of this planet. Messages are reg-" Vala suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" He asked, adrenaline spiking in his blood.

"Anti-Air defences across the planet are coming online. Multiple shade turrets locking on to us."

Several plasma shots whizzed by. The Spartan yanked back, executing a backwards roll, and then punching the afterburners and accelerating.

"Sensors have identified the main staging area for the fleet above, As well as multiple AA bases." Vala told him.

"Put us on course for the staging area." He ordered.

"Gladly. However, there is an AA base in between us and the staging area." Vala notified him.

"Then we'll blast our way through." John muttered grimly. "Hang on back there!"

He spared a quick glance back. Jimaenius had been slammed into an empty weapons locker, which didn't appear to have survived well. Zhab was holding on tightly to a sidebar. Thel was standing in the doorway down to lower deck of the fighter, his hands holding onto the frame tightly. The two grunts had been wedged to the ceiling by an impact or two.

The Spartan turned back before they responded. He pulled to the left as a pair of fuel rod shots whizzed by. He searched the ground and then located the AA base. It was a tall tower dotted with Shade turrets and Fuel Rod turrets.

"Arm missiles!" He ordered, lining up the fighter. "Target the base!"

"Nuclear or non-nuclear?" Asked Vala.

"Non-nuclear." The Spartan responded.

A couple of plasma slammed into the shields. The Spartan swore and pulled the craft into a roll.

"Missiles locked." Vala announced.

"Fire at will!" He yelled, and punched the afterburners.

The missiles broke off the wings of the fighter and fell towards the base below. The fighter exploded forward. Shots were fired more intensely at them, but few even came close.

"Time to impact?" John asked.

"Ten seconds." Vala replied. "All six missiles responding."

The fire around them stopped. The Chief activated a rear camera and watched the missiles. The Covenant loyalist turned full firepower towards the missiles, taking down two. The others, however, carrier on unimpeded. They slammed into the AA tower. There were four large explosions, then a series of small blue explosions, which ripped apart the decks of the base, and then plasma flowed from the broken pipes of the tower, dissolving large sections of it.

"Target completely destroyed. Tad bit overkill, but the result is the same." Vala noted.

The Chief was surprised by her comment. It was one of the first times that he'd heard her have any degree of personality. Maybe she wouldn't be a simple deadpan smart AI.

He turned his eyes back to the surface of the planet. He spotted a large flat area surrounded by Covenant walls, along with the occasional building strewn about. A few cruisers lay in the flat. It appeared to be the Covenant staging area or main base.

"Warning." Vala told him, "Enemy AA presence is much stronger here. I recommend landing and entering that way."

The Spartan growled slightly, a lack of professionalism, sure but he was under more stress than he had been in years. He'd never had to fly and longsword through an entire covenant fleet, and then land at their staging area, all the time trying to keep the other occupants of the longsword alive.

He pulled the longsword to the right, tying to avoid the AA from the Covenant base below. He spotted a couple of ships parked on this base, presumably being devices following the battle above. Suddenly, a pair of shots slammed into the shield. They exploded outwards, leaving a dull warning pulse sounding throughout the fighter.

"Shields offline." Vala announced.

An idea hit the Master Chief. It was almost suicidal, so he didn't bother running it through the rest of the Squad. He took the craft into a spin, venting the left afterburner to create the illusion of the craft spinning out of control. There were muffled cries and protests from the others as they were thrown around the back of the fighter.

The fighter angled towards the ground. There was very little AA fire coming after it now, the defences probably assumed that there was no point wasting shots to finish off the falling fighter.

"Vala," John growled over the G-forces, "Focus the shields to the fore to minimise the force of the impact."

Vala was silent for a second, which was worrying considering that AI experienced time at a much slower rate. A second for him was a roughly thousand for an AI.

"Vala?" He asked.

"Aye. On it. Fore shields maximised. Time to impact, 14 seconds." She responded.

She sounded distracted. The Chief wondered by what, but he didn't had the time to ponder it. After all, he had a longsword to 'land'. They tore towards the ground.

"5 seconds." Vala announced.

"Brace!" The Spartan yelled.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Spearhead of Dawn, Thruf orbit. January 30th, 2553_

Cortana was an incredible piece of machinery, being able to compute millions of tasks in a second, being capable of operating a starship with her eyes closed. Metaphorically, at least.

The only thing she was not good at was waiting. Which, ironically, was the one thing she had to do. As she ran another system scan, finding out once again that, guess what, all systems were nominal. Cloak and shields still holding at maximum capacity.

She turned the scanners towards the Covenant fleet drifting around her. She could destroy then all in an instant, but that would defeat the purpose of the exercise, which was to drive the Loyalist presence in the system away, not blow it to pieces. They would leave unaware of the Squad, which Cortana assumed was going to have to shadow the fleet when they left for Loyalist spaces.

The Spearhead was equipped with dozens BOWMEN torpedo pods, Helix AEA guns and two SMACs. The only reason she'd nearly lost the shields was because she'd had to hold back. The cloak was undetectable by the fleet, and the fleet thought they'd blown her up anyway.

They definitely were not ready for Cortana to reappear. Some of them hadn't even reloaded their plasma beams and torpedoes.

Amateurs, Cortana thought. Complete amateurs.

And indeed they were. Most of these brutes had no idea to pilot these ships, let alone fight in cooperation. She couldn't tap into their COMs without attracting attention from the fleet drifting around her. All that she could do was wait.

"Fine." She muttered, even though there was no one there to listen. "I will wait."

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Thruf, crashed longsword, January 30th, 2553_

Thel shook his head as he rose from the end of the fighter. There were a number of grunts and groans from across the fighter.

"Sound off." A voice crackled over the COM.

He grunted an affirmative while the others did the same. The fighter seemed to have been wedged in a down and right facing direction.

"Any injuries?" A voice behind him asked.

He shook his head. "No."

"There's a mostly methane atmosphere out there." Vala announced.

"Switch to atmospheric mode." The Spartan ordered. "All except for Liyik and Limid."

Thel walked down a set of stairs and opened the undamaged weapons locker. He spotted his Eva helmet (which looked like Halo: Reach Ranger helmet) and pulled his current helmet off and replaced it with the EVA helmet. The HUD booted up and the combat harness' shields adjusted to their new dimensions.

Jimaenius had also only replaced his helmet as well. Zhab however, had donned a new set of armor. Nearly identical to his other set, when he donned this one, orange plastic coverings erupted from the metal chassis of the harness, sealing the gaps of the suit while still allowing good mobility. The Kig-yar finally donned a helmet with a clear visor. He did not look comfortable in the armor.

Liyid and Limid picked up their fuel rods and hobbled to the bay door of the fighter.

"Thel, Jimaenius, get the nukes." The Master Chief ordered.

Beneath his visor, the Sangheili raised an eyebrow. So he was on actual name calling with the Spartan? _Very well._

"Very well, John." The Sangheili responded, picking up one of the two nukes and strapping it to the magnetic clips on his back waist.

Jimaenius gave a grunt of affirmative and did the same. The nukes were here for a single reason. Sabotage. The Squad would smuggle the nukes inside the Covenant base and then detonate. With luck, it would destroy the base, with the Covenant thinking it little more than a reactor failure.

"Everyone ready?" John asked.

Thel flashed his acknowledgement light. The others did the same. The Spartan reached into the console of the fighter and yanked Vala's chip and inserted it into the back of his helmet.

"Pop the hatch." Thel said.

The bay door of the longsword fell. Instantly there was an explosion of noise as the atmosphere of the longsword was replaced by the atmosphere of the planet they were on.

"Move out." John ordered. "Liyik, Limid, take point."

The two grunts shambled out of the fighter and jumped down and out of sight. Thel followed.

He jumped out of the rear of the fighter. His stomach twisted as the artificial gravity of the longsword was cancelled out and the gravity of the planet came into effect. The gravity was low enough to prevent Thel from slamming down into the ground. The Sangheili executed a roll as he touched down.

"What's this planet's gravity?" He asked.

There was a second's silence, and then Vala responded with:

"Gravity appears to be 0.38g. Roughly six times lesser than Sangheilios."

The rest of the Squad climbed out of the fighter. Most landed gracefully, while Zhab landed in a heap, but sprung up uninjured.

"Vala, establish an team COM." The Spartan ordered.

The planet's atmosphere allowed them to speak and hear each other, but the voices were distorted by the atmosphere.

"COM established." Vala notified.

"COM check." John muttered. "Okay. We're good. Vala, drop a waypoint on the Covenant Loyalist base."

She proceeded to do it. The waypoint appeared a few kilometers away.

"Time to stretch our legs." Thel snorted.

Liyik and Limid scuttled ahead with their weapons attached to the back of their methane packs, which weren't even in use, owing to the mostly methane atmosphere.

He followed about three meters behind. He moved slowly as not to bypass the grunts on the point. At normal pace, he could easily overtake them, but he close not to. Jimaenius and John could have done the same as well. He'd noticed something in the sims about them; They were faster than they looked.

Zhab, on the other hand, was also deceptive. He was slower than he looked. The Kig-yar in question stumbled along, clearly suffering in the makeshift EVA gear.

Cortana had done some modifications to their armors using nanites, but she'd only done Thel's and Jimaenius' ones. She'd increased shield strength and improved the body suit below the armor, She'd also added a makeshift neural port in Thel's so he could carry an AI if the situation called for it.

Jimaenius had his shield system changed to recharging energy layer instead of energised body armor, which fell off when overheated.

The air was still and quiet as the team headed towards the waypoint. It should be on the other side of this tall hill they were climbing. The lower gravity made it much easier to climb.

They reached the top of the hill. Below them stood the Covenant staging area. It was surrounded by purple three meter high walls, but was almost unguarded. The only guards were AA towers several meters behind the walls.

The group paused, examining the base below them. After a minute, the Spartan gestured for them to move. The Squad began a slow walk down the hill.

"Faster!" John suddenly growled over the COM. "Get to the walls."

Thel picked up his place, as did John and Jimaenius. The Jiralhanae stopped for a second and seized both Grunts at their shoulders and hefted them along. Thel glanced over for a second at Zhab as he ran full belt after the group, his smaller legs becoming his disadvantage as the rest of his group powered away. They reached the wall of the staging area after a minute. Zhab arrived thirty seconds later, wheezing heavily, clearly suffering from the suit and the exertion.

The rest of the Squad wasn't even winded by the run. Of course, Sangheili and Jiralhanae were naturally tough and John had the Spartan-II augmentations to put himself on par with the two. The Kig-yar simply could not compete with them. Thel decided that he would have to keep the jackal from falling behind. He neglected to tell the Kig-yar about this, though, because he knew that Zhab had a sense of pride and wouldn't take kindly to being hefted along someone.

"Now… How do we get over?" Jimaenius asked.

Thel glanced over at John. The human crouched slightly.

"Up and over." He said, and jumped over the wall.

Thel snorted. Zhab and the grunts attempted to jump over, but they couldn't even in the lesser gravity. Jimaenius reached forward and seized the two grunts over their shoulders again, and then jumped over the wall. Thel reached forward and grabbed the back of the Kig-yar's metal harness and jumped over the wall. They landed right beside the Brute. The Jackal snarled and shook himself free of the Sangheili's grasp.

"I didn't need any help." Zhab snarled.

"Sure." The Sangheili replied.

"Drop it." John warned.

The Sangheili sighed slightly, but let the Kig-yar off scot-free. He glance around the area that the Squad had landed in. It was obscured by a fuel tank from the rest of the staging area.

"Now. Vala, find us a way to the main plasma reactors or storage." The Spartan ordered.

"Working." Vala replied. "Searching through the blueprints collected by the Spearhead over the planet prior to insertion and what was collected by the Longsword prior to the crash. Three possible routes detected."

The Spartan paused. "How long is the quickest?"

"Twenty minutes, however there is a high risk of being seen along that route." Vala replied.

"Any others with not as much chance of being seen?"

A pause. "One other route. Low chance of being spotted during the majority of the route. There are a couple of spots where you may get spotted."

The Spartan paused, thinking. "We'll take that route." he finally said.

"Dropping a waypoint." Vala announced.

The waypoint appeared in the distance.

"That's the entry point." She added.

"Can you give a run down on this plan?" Zhab mumbled.

Thel agreed with the Kig-yar.

"Very well." Vala sounded slightly annoyed by them. "This is a permanent setup. Apparently the Loyalist have plans to stay for a while. Anyway, under this base is a series of tunnels for the brute soldiers. There are also a series of maintenance tunnels. We will go through these. There will be several Huragok in the tunnel, but they don't care about us, but the tunnels are wide enough to allow Brutes to go through."

The Squad made ready to move. The waypoint was about eight hundred meters away. The waypoint was on top of an airlock to what Thel assumed was the tunnels below. Zhab leaned out of a corner and searched for anyone who might be watching.

"Clear." He announced.

They flashed several acknowledgement lights.

"Go." John ordered.

The Squad made their move to the airlock. They made it without incident. The airlock was four meters high.

"Place your hand on the door lock. I can hack it then." Vala ordered.

The Spartan placed his hand upon the door lock. There was a pause, then the door slid open. The Squad walked into the room. It was an elevator. The Squad fit into the elevator comfortably. The doors closed and the elevator descended. After a minute, They reached a large corridor.

"Turn right after ten meters." Vala suddenly announced.

Thel turned and spotted a door on the right. John placed his hand upon the door, and it opened instantly. The hallway inside was dark. Thel drew his carbine and flicked on the light on. The corridor was empty and silent, only interrupted door closing behind him. The others lights flicked on behind him.

"Dropping a waypoint on the tunnel you should go down next." Vala announced, and did so immediately.

Thel walked into that corridor, having taken point as they headed down the maintenance hallways. There was silence in the group. The only thing that could be heard was the grunts breathing and the groups footsteps. The occasional Huragok passed by, but made no notice of any of them.

After ten minutes of going in a straight line down a hallway, they reached a closed door. The Master Chief enquired it to Vala.

"There's a main corridor on the other side. About a few meters away, you'll reach another corridor. There may be guards on the other side, however." Vala replied.

"Ok people. Weapons free. Liyik, Limid and Thel, check the right, Jimaenius and Zhab, left. Vala and I will open the door." John ordered. "Thel, open the door.

The Sangheili complied, delivering a powerful kick to the door. The door flew open with a clang. He immediately turned to the right with his carbine raised, with the grunts close behind him. The Jackal and the Brute did the same behind him.

"What the…" Came a gasp from a brute ahead of him.

Thel fired, and the Carbine spat several rounds into the brute. His armor shattered and the brute went down. Another on that had been standing beside him raised his brute shot. He fired a single shot, but the unggoy were faster and opened up with their plasma pistol, it being too close to use the fuel rods. The brute shot round exploded on Thel's right. One of the grunts screamed.

There was a yell from behind Thel and Jimaenius' spiker opned fired. There were several explosions behind him.

"Ambush!" The Master Chief yelled.

Thel turned to the right to find one of the grunts lying against a wall barely conscious, with the other standing over him. There was a roar as three brutes appeared from a corridor. Thel fired two shots into a brute, knocking off his armor. John finished with a triple shot the Jiralhanae's head. The other two fired and it slammed into the two's shields.

Behind them the firefight increased in ferocity. Jimaenius yelled as there was an explosion. A beam rifle fired several times.

"Fall back to the corridor!" The Spartan yelled.

"It would be advisable to not have any survivors see you, they don't seem to have alerted anyone who did not see the firefight." Vala replied.

Another two brutes fell. Thel turned to the fallen grunt beside him. His brother was holding him up and carring him to the unopened door. John turned and headed to the door, using Vala's hacking skills to open it. Cortana had taught her some things in Covenant hacking.

Thel turned back to spy about twenty brutes coming down the corridor, led by a chieftain. Jiralhanae hefted a huge gravity hammer. Jimaenius and Zhab suddenly took up positions behind him and opened fire. The Chieftan roared a challenge and entered a sprint. Thel parted his jaws and drew his energy sword to meet the challenge. He broke into a sprint as he did so. They closed the distance between them and the Chieftain raised the hammer. As the brute swung, the Sangheili sidestepped, and he felt the reverb of the hammer slamming into the floor as he swung his sword straight through the Brute's leg. The brute screamed in pain and swung horizontally this time. Thel rolled, evading the stroke and closed the Chieftan's range. He brought his sword straight up the Jiralhanae's chest, cutting straight through the armor. The Brute screamed again in pain.

Thel raised his sword and executed the finishing move on the Brute Chieftan. The corpse fell to the side. He slowly turned to the remainder of the pack, who stared at him in disbelief. He bellowed a challenge.

"Who's next?!" He roared.

Suddenly, something slammed him hard in the back. He flew into the wall with a loud bang. For a second, he thought that it was Jimaenius, but he quickly recognized that it was not the Brute on his team. This brute wore entirely grey chieftain armor. The crafty chieftain must have been waiting in a side corridor for him. He raised the hammer as he lunged forward. Thel pushed himself to the right of the swing as it fell and rose to his feet. The Brute growled and swung the hammer again. Thel ducked and got in close for a stoke, but this brute was crafty. The Brute reversed the strike. The blade on the opposite side of the hammer slammed into Thel's side.

His shields broke, and Thel was thrown into another wall with less force. He lay there for a second, stunned, until he felt something warm trickling down his side. He gave a quick glance and spotted blood running down his side. A year ago, this would have been his honour, but he had decided it no longer was. He rose to his hands and knees.

Zhab fired a round into the brute. It hit him in the chest, but the Brute roared and drew something from his belt and clamped it onto the front of his armor. White light shimmered across him. The invincibility power-up. Thel groaned slightly and tried to rise, but the brute swung across again. He struck the Sangheili hard in the side. With no shields to protect him this time, he slammed across the corridor hard. He came to a stop after what seemed like an eternity, but was only a few seconds. He tasted metallic blood in his mouth. The Brute, still invincible, advanced slowly but steadily, his weapons still raised and ready. Another beam rifle and spiker rounds slammed into him but to no effect.

"Now, little elite, Are you ready to die?" He laughed, and raised his hammer.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Ohh... cliffy. First one i've done for this story .**

 **Also a huge thanks to Manters for the Cover.**


	8. Chapter 7: Unforgotten Revenge

**Chapter 7: Unforeseen Revenge**

 **Thank you all for those three reviews I got, It was great to read over them and even take on board some suggestions.**

 **For instance, Foley24's review actually reshaped the story a tad, initially, Jimaenius was going to shoot the brute with a spiker in the head. I didn't like it very much, but Foley24's review gave me an idea that may completely change the story and the plot; read on to see…**

 _Covenant loyalist staging area, Thruf, 30th of January_.

Jimaenius' spiker had no effect on the invincible chieftain. He drew a plasma grenade, but was forced to use it to drive back the pack that was slowly advancing up the corridor. They cheered and goaded their chieftain as he raised his hammer over the Sangheili. Right up until the grenade detonated and blew their line apart.

Jimaenius suddenly came up with an idea. Almost anything that could hurt the invincible chieftain would further injure the Sangheili. That only left one plan. The Jiralhanae knew that it was perilous and near suicidal, but it was his best chance of saving the Sangheili.

He reached to the handle of energy mace. The mace was attached to the back of his right leg. He reached back and seized the handle, pulling it out. He grasped it with both hands and extended the handle outwards with a tug. The four plasma prongs blazed on atop the mace. Jimaenius did not like using a energy mace. Most of the time he would ram his spiker at anything inside his reach, but the energy mace was a much more specialised weapon.

Usually soon-to-be chieftains would use these maces to get used to the feel of a gravity hammer. Jimaenius had trained with a hammer on the Spearhead, but he never had with the energy mace. He'd literally picked up from the armoury without a second thought.

The chieftain did not notice as his invincibility faded, and at the same time, Jimaenius charged him, twisting to his right to maximise swing strength from the mace. He stepped in and swung at the brute. The Jiralhanae cried out in shock and pain as the mace smashed into his side, cutting through his armour and giving it a dent. The chieftain was sent sprawling across the room. Jimaenius spared a glance at the Sangheili. He looked tired but unsurprised by Jimaenius' intervention.

Something caught Jimaenius' eye. In his shock, the chieftain had dropped his gravity hammer. In normal brute etiquette, It would have been unacceptable to pick up a chieftains hammer in a duel, but this wasn't a duel. Jimaenius sheathed his mace, shrinking it down and clipping it to his back leg. He reached out and picked up the gravity hammer. His fingers tightened upon the hammer's grip. He looked up at the chieftain, who was slowly getting to his feet, his right hand pressed over his injury. He looked up too, and froze when he realised what had happened.

Jimaenius didn't hesitate. He lunged forward and spun backwards, using the momentum to increase the power. The chieftain didn't hesitate, going for a weapon upon his thigh, before realising he was unarmed. His eyes widened, and Jimaenius introduced a hammer to his chest. There was a responding gong as the hammer struck home. The chieftain flew across the room, slamming into the wall hard. He rolled off the wall and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Three shots impacted Jimaenius' shields. He turned to the source of fire. Three brutes had their weapons up, two spikers and one brute shot. Jimaenius charged again, spinning around and slamming the hammer into the brute. This one however, lacked the armor that the chieftain did, and the hammer strike smashed the brute's midsection. His chest was rendered into bloody chunks as the gravity hammer rammed home, tearing the brute in half.

The two others stopped and stared, and Jimaenius swung again, sending the hammer into one's helmet. The helmet was knocked off and this brute, being slightly more armored, was slammed into the ceiling and remained stuck there, still in one piece. Jimaenius lunged upwards and brought the hammer across the chest of the final brute. This one was thrown backwards and sent sprawling across the floor, armor heavily dented. He rose from his ready stance and stared at the rest of the brute pack.

The brute pack froze, horrified by what they had seen. There were about twelve of them left, but only half had weapons drawn, and only half with any intention of using them.

"Everyone, get into the maintenance tunnel!" The human suddenly ordered.

There was a boom from the opposite side of the corridor that Jimaenius and Zhab had been watching. He glanced over to see the Spartan hefting one of the grunt's fuel rods. He'd fired a shot down the corridor and it had fallen apart from the explosion. As the human turned to the other corridor, Jimaenius sprinted to the fallen Sangheili. He found that the Elite was still consious, though in obvious pain. His eyes were open and staring up at the Jiralhanae with an almost bemused expression. He hefted the Sangheil's over his shoulder, and after scooping up his weapons as well, he sprinted towards the corridor where his Squad was retreating to.

Behind him, the Spartan fired a fuel rod cannon. He stopped to turn into the door, and spared a quick glance back down the corridor. The fuel rod slammed into the ceiling above the Brute pack, and fell on them with a thunderous roar. The disruption spread across the ceiling.

"Go!" The human yelled, pushing them into the maintenance corridor.

Behind them, less than a second later, the hallway was buried under a huge pile of debris. Jimaenius laid the injured Sangheili against the wall of the corridor and stared into the darkness of the corridor.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Maintenance corridor FA-42, Covenant Loyalist base, Thruf, January the 30th_

John had thought that the Squad was more effective than it had been proven to be. Their first engagement, and two out of six of them were down. Not ideal.

"In lieu of the engagement, I have some good news." Vala whispered to him.

"And that is?" He replied impatiently.

"No one survived that engagement. Besides us, of course. The Loyalists have no idea we are here. They think the base collapsed. Nothing in the COMs about intruders, plenty about a structural failure. Our cover remains intact." Vala announced.

The Spartan paused in surprise. That was definitely a plus, and they really needed one now. He looked over his Squad. Thel and one of the grunts, Liyik, were down. The Sangheili somehow still had his nuke attached and it was still operable. Luckily, they had brought medical supplies. He tuned to Jimaenius.

"Turn around, give me access to your armour's back stores." He ordered.

The brute complied, presenting his back to the Spartan. Cortana had designed Jimaenius' armor to be very lightweight, so she'd added storage packs to his back. The largest central pack contained the first aid kit. He opened the lock and pulled the pack out, paying it upon the ground.

He opened and and took out the medical scanner. He attached the wire from it into his a point on his wrist. The scanner looked like a target locator, with a more HD screen. John knelt beside the Sangheili and began a scan of him. The Sangheili stared up at him, looking somewhat amused.

"What's the damage?" He asked.

The scan completed with a ding. The Spartan consulted the screen.

"You've broken three ribs, shattered your upper left leg and bagged a deep cut just above your pelvis." He replied, disconnecting the scanner and picking up a biofoam injector.

"You make it sound like I've won it." Thel chuckled weakly.

John opened a biofoam port on the left of Thel's chest and placed the biofoam injector. He pushed it down and heard a hiss as the biofoam entered the armor. Ironically, Cortana had neglected to add biofoam injectors to the armor when she had been rebuilt his armor. John resolved to have words about that when this was finished. Thel relaxed slightly as the foam entered his armor.

"Now..." He mused, "What are we going to do about that leg?"

The Sangheili reached forwards and began to disassemble his leg armor, wincing as he did so.

"This may take som-" He hissed in pain. "Time."

The Spartan nodded and turned to the unconscious Liyik. He raised the scanner and scanned over the Unggoy. A quick scan informed him that Liyik had a slight concussion. He turned and picked up an adrenaline injector. Confirming that this one would work on the Unggoy, he injected this into Liyik's chest port. The grunt lay still for a moment, then sprung up, charged with energy. His brother immediately cheered and slammed into him in a hug.

"Was that adrenaline?" Thel asked from behind him.

"Yes." The Spartan replied, turning back to him.

"What have you done?" The Sangheili chuckled faintly. "He's now overcharged with energy."

Thel had removed the armor plating around his broken leg. His leg was misshapen in several places, bending back and forward at random points.

"Once upon a time, I would have considered these injuries a dishonor." He stated.

"How did we mess up so badly? Our first mission and two down before we're halfway done." John sighed.

"There's some good to this, John." Thel replied. "We haven't had any corridor skirmishes in the simulations, and the enemy our still unaware of our presence."

The Spartan paused for a second. The Sangheili spoke the truth. Perhaps the Chief's luck was still with him.

"Okay. I'm going to reset your leg." He said, moving his arms to do.

"Do you know how to do that?" Thel asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"I'm just going to straighten it. According to what I have here on Sangheili anatomy, that should be all." John answered. "On three."

The Sangheili nodded, clenching his hands into fists and tightening his jaws together.

"One."

Thel took a deep breath and closed his eyes to brace himself.

"Two."

On two, John reached forward and reset the leg. Thel hissed in pain, but he didn't cry out.

"I thought you said two." Thel muttered accusingly.

"I may have lied." John replied, offering him a piece of his leg armor. "A bit."

Thel gave a mix between a sigh and a snort that only Sangheili seemed to be able to do. The Chief offered him a pain killer to lessen the pain, to which the Sangheili refused. Apparently he still had some degree of honour, though lesser than most others of his kind. Thel attached the armor and locked up his leg armor to use it as a splint. This would give him a good amount of speed, dispite the fact his leg wasn't in the best shape.

"Everyone ready to go?" John asked, to which he got a response in acknowledgement lights.

All of them were as good as they'd ever be. Thel appeared to standing well unassisted, though occasionally wincing when he put pressure on it. Liyik seemed to be up and the usual partially insane ball of energy along with his brother, maybe a bit overcharged with energy from the adrenaline shot. Thel may have been right about that.

"Let's move out." John ordered, drawing his BR. "Let's get to the core."

 **I+-+-+I**

 _A pile of rubble, Covenant staging area, January 30th, 2553_

The Chieftain shifted beneath the rubble, trying to find any light. He was tightly squeezed into the rubble left by the Demon. He growled beneath his helmet as he remembered the interruption of a fellow brute. He had been with the group of races. It was impossible for him to think of fighting alongside humans and Sangheili, as well as actually trying to save one. It baffled the Chieftain's mind.

But now back to his current predicament. He pushed against the rubble, and felt it shift slightly. He smiled slightly, sensing victory, and pulled him in a ball, before pushing out as hard as he could. The rubble groaned and he heard it shifting again. He pulled back again, then turned over towards the sky.

He saw a single pinprick of light. He pushed again with renewed strength. The rubble shifted and fell away, opening the passage to the surface. The Brute pulled free of the embrace of the ruins, standing tall over the ruins. The surface of the staging area was below him, but his helmet protected him from the other atmosphere. He roared in victory.

"Chieftain! You're alive?" He heard several brutes say.

He turned around and grinned. The other half of his pack that hadn't been dispatched to the firefight had survived.

"It'll take more than a Sangheili and his friends to stop me." He growled.

Half of his pack tilted their heads.

"What Sangheili, Chieftain? It was a structural collapse that crushed everyone." One asked.

"What? It was a-" Then it suddenly dawned upon him.

He could use this too his advantage. A single ship hunting down the trespassers would bring him untold notoriety. He had permission of the prophet to take one ship whenever he wanted and the crew to command it for up to a year, then he had to return or be considered rouge.

"Never mind. The collapse must have left me with strange... Confusions." He corrected. "Prepare a cruiser to launch immediately. I believe that this was a work of sabotage. I will find who was responsible... And I will hunt them all down."

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Underneath Covenant Loyalist base, Thruf, 30th of January 30th._

Zhab paused as the torchlight from his suit landed upon a wall ahead.

"Dead end." He snarled, turning back to the group following closely behind.

"No." The AI replied. "This is a door."

"To where?" Asked the human.

"The main underground refueling reactor." She answered.

Zhab swallowed, beginning his advance towards toward the door. Upon reaching it, he pushed. The door opened with a quiet creak.

The inside made the Kig-yar's mouth gape in shock. The room was a huge darkened pit, with the occasional rope bridges lashed across the room at random. Two brute patrols marched across these with their weapons drawn, yet none noticed the odd group. In the center of the room, however, lay a huge reactor that glowed plasma blue. It was easily a hundred meters wide and rose and descended for a kilometer either way. Zhab couldn't even see the bottom of the reactor when he looked over the side of the rope bridge.

"Wow." Was all he could say.

"Vala, how do we destroy that thing?" The human asked.

There was silence for a moment.

"Our two nukes, while damaged, are both still operational. If we drop one to the bottom and leave one to detonate up here, the reactor's final explosion should finish this base." She replied.

"Will that be enough?" The Spartan asked.

The AI laughed. "Will it not?"

Zhab swallowed. If the AI found this funny, then those bombs must pack a hell of a punch behind them. He decided he didn't want to be around when those bombs went off.

"Let's get this over with." He snarled.

The Squad glanced over at him, surprised by his outburst.

"Very well." The Sangheili said. "Where do we place these?"

He pulled his damaged, misshapen bomb off his back. The screen on the bomb was cracked, but still displayed readouts of the nuclear device.

"Vala will sync them to go in 15 minutes." The Spartan offered his arm to them. "Jimaenius, drop your nuke down there. Thel, place your bomb here."

The two offered the bombs to the Spartan, and he armed them both. Satisfied, he nodded, and the two moved their bombs to position. Jimaenius dropped the bomb over the side. The flashing red light on it disappeared into the black abyss. The Sangheili placed his bomb on the bridge.

"Now, How do we get out of here?" Zhab suddenly asked. "The passage behind us was blown, remember?"

The Spartan turned to the left and pointed downwards, over the edge of the bridge.

"We'll take that path." He said, and jumped down.

There was a faint thud from below. Zhab leaned over and spotted another bridge about twenty meters below. It swayed slightly under the weight of the falling Spartan. He gestured for them to jump. The Sangheili jumped without hesitation, executing a roll upon landing. Jimaenius glanced over at Zhab.

"I'll take the Unggoy." The Brute growled, scooping up the two onto his shoulders and jumping down.

Zhab suddenly got the image of the Jiralhanae missing and falling into the darkness. He gulped and watched. The bridge was not a wide target, about six meters at the widest point. However, the Jimaenius had made it, and with him, Liyik and Limid. Only Zhab was left. Zhab normally did not care for heights. After all, most of the best sniping points were up high, but there was something unnerving about seeing nothing but darkness below the bridge.

"Here goes." He muttered to himself, and jumped.

He internally cursed as his legs caught on the railing, stalling his jump. He cleared it, but it had cost him a lot of his horizontal velocity. The bridge rushed up to meet him, but he would not land on it. He hadn't gone far enough. Panic gripped him and he reached as far forward as he could, hoping to get some grip on the bridge as he fell by it…

He slammed into the bridge hard, feeling the shock even through his combat harness. His hands lashed out, searching for something, anything to grab to stop him sliding off. Something grabbed his arm. He glanced upwards to see the human holding on the his arm tightly to stop him from falling. Zhab gave a faint gasp of relief, and then the Spartan pulled him onto the bridge.

He scrambled onto the bridge, taking a deep breath as his feet touched solid ground. He gave the Spartan a quiet thanks. The Human gave a slight nod in reply.

"Time is ticking, people. Vala will mark the route out. Let's sprint this. Anyone who can't keep pace, mount up." He ordered.

Liyik and Limid climbed aboard Jimaenius, who accepted them with a grunt. The Sangheili turned to him. Zhab knew what the Elite was going to say, so he spoke first.

"No. I'll sprint his _myself_ , thank you very much." The Kig-yar snarled.

The Sangheili did not look amused.

"Let's face it. You aren't fast. We could easily run laps around you. We don't have time to argue. I don't like it, but we'll do what we have to do." He said.

Zhab sighed, accepting defeat. The Sangheili offered his back, and the Kig-yar climbed aboard, nursing his hurt pride.

"Move, people!" The human shouted.

The Human, Sangheili and Jiralhanae flew along the ground, crossing the bridge in a matter of seconds. The Elite was so fast, even with an injured leg. Zhab momentarily forgot about his injured pride as he looked upon the spectacle of the three sprinters. A closed door loomed ahead, with a waypoint placed upon.

Jimaenius wasn't going to accept no for an answer, - or more accurately, door. He increased his pace slightly and drew his gravity hammer that he had taken from the Chieftain he'd defeated. He drew it back as the grunts gave chitters as they watched the massive weapon build power, and then slammed hard into the door. The door didn't take it never well. It separated into two parts and flew across the room. The other two sprinters reached behind and drew their weapons; The Spartan an assault rifle and the Sangheili a carbine.

The base was still so calm and quiet, despite the looming danger. The sprinters encountered little resistance, but put down what they did quickly and efficiently. Zhab was impressed by the Sangheili's ability to land shots moving at the speed they were, as well as coordinating with the human's fire so well.

"Twelve minutes!" The Spartan yelled.

Zhab was impressed by the progress they'd made in about two and a half minutes. They'd gone a kilometer so far, if the waypoints that were being continuously activated ahead of them were to be believed. No alarms went off in the base, the Loyalists still were unprepared for the surprise. They round a sudden corner to their left, Zhab hanging on to the Sangheili for dear life.

Ahead of them loomed the purple elevator. The corridor was around two hundred long.

"I'll hack the elevator and 'convince' it to open both airlocks, which 'may' cause mass depressurization throughout the base." The AI announced.

"Do it." The Human said.

"Stand by…" She murmured. "Done."

There was a groan in front of them, then a loud sucking as the two atmospheres violently clashed, the larger establishing dominance. The elevator was ripped upwards and thrown into the air outside. The Squad was lifted from the corridor and pulled forward at great speed, before then being forced upwards and high into the planet's atmosphere. Zhab once again hung onto the Sangheili as the pair were thrown high into the sky. Below, Zhab could see Brutes yelling a running as the decompression continued, with pieces of debris flying about the base, destroying containers and the like. Zhab even noted a couple of explosions.

They continued their arced flight through the air, still gaining height, but slowing down horizontally. They were about two kilometers up now, and finally slowing down vertically, before they hung, weightless, for a second. Then gravity took hold and began its persistent drag towards the ground.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _The Spearhead of Dawn,_ _Thruf, January 30_ _th_

Cortana had been sitting up in orbit for far too long now. She had begun her probes to see if the Covenant base had noticed the Squad yet. The only thing she heard was that there had been a structural collapse at the base. Either this was pure coincidence, or the work of 'Something'.

Something appeared on Cortana's scanners. A message. She couldn't identify its intended recipients with looking at it. She made up her mind and enagaged the scanners. She received the message in its entirety. It was guarded by a point decimal syntax code: Impressive but very basic. It took her about three seconds to crack. The message was extremely simple; just a few lines of binary.

 _01010111 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110100 00101110 00100000 01010011 01110100 01101001 01100011 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100111 01101111 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101101 01100101 00101110_

She engaged the translation matrix and translated the binary;

 _We have done it. Stick them with tracker and go home._

Had she been in holograph form, she would have frowned. There were no defined recipients to the message. It could have been meant for anyone. Yet the message was extremely low bore, meaning that it had only travelled a short distance. It had delivered nearby and spread from that point. Close enough to be within Thruf's gravity well. So it had been aimed at Thruf. So that meant that someone knew where the recipient should be, at least the general area. The Covenant loyalist fleet had not taken any action upon the message's arrival. Upon opening her COMs and receiving a few messages, she found that they didn't understand the message.

So that meant it was meant for them. _We have done it._ What did that mean? What had ONI done? She replayed the Admiral's message from earlier. Their mission had been to cause a distraction to give the Council time to come to a decision on how to help Eayn. So had they decided? That would explain the message.

Stick them with tracker and go home. That was simple to understand. She began the process, heating up a tracker pod's maneuvering thrusters and moving it to a launch tube. She flared the engines slightly, putting her on course for a ship in the Loyalist fleet. The _Spearhead_ was invisible, and passed over the cruiser unnoticed. As she did so, Cortana launched the tracker. The battlecruiser did not have its shields up, and the small tracker maneuvered onto the cruiser and landed on the hull quietly and unnoticed. It gave a ping, and Cortana put it into standby mode.

Tracker deployed, she switched to the other objective; getting home. She opened the COMs to find that there had been a sudden explosive decompression. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was responsible. With the Covenant distracted, she began a series of scans across the planet, ignoring the fact she might be noticed. She picked up the Longsword's transponder. The fighter had crashed a short distance from the base, and scans revealed that a few major systems had been damaged. As it was forbidden to allow Section 4 tech to fall to enemy hands, she activated the remote detonation.

Then she picked up eight contacts; The Squad and their nukes. The nukes had reached 12:12, and were armed and deployed. With the longsword destroyed, there would be no way for the Squad to escape. Cortana came up with her plan. The Squad had been launched airborne by the decompression. She calculated their Apoapis. 2.25km from the surface. The _Spearhead_ was just fast enough to catch them if she came in just right…

She powered the thrusters as set her course. The ship fell into the planet's atmosphere, building up a fireball as it did so. The base came into sight, a place of chaos as the decompressed air threw objects about. Smoke trails were visible. The frigate continued; straight into the AAs target range, however the big guns were unoccupied as the frigate darted over. They were still cloaked, but the cloak was fading in and out as a result of the atmospheric plunge. They could be seen, but only if you were focusing on the sky. No alarms were raised. She identified the locations of the transponders of the crew. Right where she wanted them.

"Gotcha." She yelled triumphantly.

The Frigate swept in, opened its bay doors and let the Squad fall inside. She immediately shut the door and powered the engines to full.

"Good job boys, time to go!" She said over the COM, and the _Spearhead_ rose into space.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _The MRS class stealth cruiser was developed in 2551 and started production in 2552, with only one in production when the Great Schism tore the Covenant apart. Expensive, advanced and difficult to maintain without huragok, this ship would have been a match for the_ Spearhead _in stealth terms. It was no match in weapons terms. It was this ship that a Brute chieftain chose to use to hunt down the Sabotagers of the staging area on Thruf. The ship floated above Thruf, intentionally isolating itself from the mess of COMs that had kicked up when the base had mysteriously vented. It was the only ship in the Thruf system paying attention; and it found what it was looking for._

 _It spotted the somewhat hidden frigate as it rose from the base. The chieftain, having found his target, grins and gives an order for tracker to be deployed. This would be no problem. The_ Spearhead _has shields, advanced ones at that. But this isn't any old covenant tracker. Small and self-reliable, the tracker using the point of a slipspace trip to bypass the shields when they go down for a brief second, before deploying upon the surface of the selected ship._

 _The chieftain is angry for his shaming, but is patient. He knows that the best revenge will come through patience. And he has what he needs. A ship, a loyal crew, and his mind. No stranger to tactics, unlike most of his kind, he may very well be a match for and experienced Sangheili shipmaster; though maybe not every one._

 _The frigate abandons its cloak, but is unnoticed by the larger fleet. A certain cruiser peruses, though. Suddenly, a bright light flashes across the surface of Thruf. Two HAVOK class nukes detonate beside a reactor, sending it into critical in a millisecond, and it too explodes with the force of a nuke. 70% of COMs in system stop. The Loyalists are stunned, puzzled. An entire base has blown itself to shreds. They do not know why._

 _The frigate glows as the slipspace drive charges, and then a portal erupts in front of it, and the ship enters. Unknown to them, they are persued by an unknown probe, one which takes advantage of the jump and slips through the shields, latching itself to the hull. A screen lights up on a cruiser, and a brute chieftain grins._

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Next week's update may be delayed; I have some school tests this week and probably won't have as much time as I would like. Anyway, thanks you guys for all the reviews, It really helps me keep going.**


	9. Chapter 8: The Crystal

**Chapter 8: The Crystal**

 **Thank you for the reviews, guys. Sorry about how long this update took. I did have tests, which i did decently at, but oh well. Sorry that this chapter is mostly filler as well, but it's still rather important.**

 _UNSC_ Spearhead of Dawn _, Tau Ceti System, 2nd of February._

The return trip took longer than the trip in. They'd jumped 1534 light years in about 35 hours on the first trip. It had taken them 43 this time. Slipspace travel was indeed unpredictable.

Thel watched as the void of slipspace had suddenly unwound, leaving stars winking across space. The asteroids of Tau Ceti flew around the frigate. John had taken Thel immediately taken to medical wing to repair his leg, which had only taken a few hours. Something forbidden by original Sangheili etiquette, but Thel had given up on that.

He flexed his leg from his chair. It responded painlessly. Ironically, he'd injured it more than it had been in the initial assault in the later sprinting.

"Running area scans." Cortana announced.

Thel nodded slightly and rose from his seat. He pulled on a specially made headset for him to communicate with the AI when he wasn't in the bridge.

"Notify me when we are ten minutes out." He muttered, and turned to the doors at the rear of the bridge.

He'd spent a bit too much time alone in the bridge. In almost all bridges he'd been inside, there would have been a crew to converse with on long voyages.

Cortana was not a very chatty person- er... AI. Vala had been quiet the entire trip. Thel wasn't exactly sure what they did when they were silent, but he doubted he ever would. He reached the end of the bridge entry corridor, and pressed a button for the elevator.

There was a ding, and after ten seconds, the doors opened to an empty elevator. Thel stepped inside. His four fingers moved over the buttons, before deciding on which one to pick. The doors closed, and the elevator descended slowly. Thel barely noted the motion.

The doors slid open, and the Sangheili stepped out into a corridor. The lights came on as he walked down it. To the side lay the private quarters of the crew. They'd chosen them when they'd been waiting for a mission back at the hideout asteroid. Their doors were locked to their hand prints, so they were private. But his quarters wasn't where he was headed. Another door loomed in front of him, and it opened as he passed. He immediately took a left and walked down a short corridor before stopping in front of the armory door. He waited for a second while the scanner scanned him, then the door slid open. The armory lights were already on. He glanced around the room to see if there was someone there.

The armoury was divided into two sections. To his right was a long series of weapon holders that extended down the room for around a hundred meters. They had several collections weapons, UNSC and Covenant. He spotted several plasma pistols and rifles, along with two Kig-yar shields and energy cutlasses.

The other half of the armory housed their armor. Cortana used several nanites to repair and upgrade their armor. Giving another sweep with his eyes, he spotted someone at a desk, doing something with a human rifle. He immediately knew who it was. He walked over to John, who seemed oblivious to his presence. John was not in his armor or his under suit, but he was in a navy uniform. As Thel walked forward, he noticed that John had several disassembled rifles on the table.

"Hello." Thel said simply, stopping beside the table and trying to figure out what the Spartan was doing.

The human grunted in reply.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Thel asked.

John didn't look up, but reached over the table and seized a wrench.

"I'm modifying my assault rifle." He replied.

He removed the barrel from a bisected battle rifle that lay on the table, and placed it beside the barrel of the assault rifle, which had been somewhat dissected at its front.

"What are you trying to achieve?" The Sangheili asked.

This time, John leaned back in his chair and looked up at the Sangheili.

"Range." He replied. "Assault rifle rounds tend to spread over a distance. If you fire it it bursts, the effect is somewhat reduced, but it's not a effective way to reduce the spread. If I extend the barrel on the end of the rifle, I can get a bit better range, maybe 150-200 meters. The barrel will somewhat compress the spread effect."

The Sangheili nodded.

"This could be quite a journey with our new squad." Thel remarked. "They're good. You know that."

The Spartan paused, as though thinking.

"Do you know anything about those hunters?" He asked. "I haven't seen them since we first got the Spearhead."

Thel thought back to when he'd last seen them. His jaws opened and closed.

"Lekgolo were never social creatures." Thel replied.

John turned back to his weapon modifying. Something told him that this conversation was over. He turned and prepared to leave, when the Spartan spoke again.

"I hope that's all it is." John murmured. "I really do."

The Sangheili glanced back for a second. Then he walked to the armoury exit and left. He decided that the common room would be his next target of visitation. It was obvious that something was bothering the human, but he looked to want to handle it alone. Thel was fine to leave him to that.

The common room was two floors up, so Thel turned back towards the elevator. He pressed the button to open the door-

"We've got an unknown signature from inside our hideout." Cortana stated over his headset.

He jumped slightly from the surprise of the her interruption. Then he snorted at his reaction. He opened his own COM in response.

"Can you clarify?" He asked.

"No. It's just a small signature on the internal wall of our asteroid." Cortana replied.

"Do you have any idea what it is?" He muttered, pressing the bridge button on the elevator.

"No idea. Could be absolutely anything. A ship's cloaking system failing, a mineral deposit, or even a mistake in our scans." Cortana hesitated on the last one, as though she didn't want to admit that one.

Thel parted his jaws slightly on that one. As soon as the elevator reached the bridge, he wiped the equivalent of a smile from his face. He hurried forward and into the bridge. He looked up at the view screen and spotted their hideout floating several kilometers away.

"Where is the signal coming from?" He asked.

"Right..." Vala began, and then placed a waypoint inside the asteroid. "There."

Thel scratched his bottom right jaw. He reached over and keyed the COM.

"There's been an unknown signature detected inside our hideout. I don't know what it is, so I want two people to armor up and prepare to go EVA and find out the signal source. You'll be launching from the bottom hangar. Bring a weapon." He muttered. "Two people must be ready in three minutes, or else..."

He closed the COM. A second later, he regretted his closing words and reopened the COM.

"I'll be angry. And you guys do not want to see me angry." He snarled, and closed the COM.

Thel sighed, then turned and walked out of the bridge, heading back to the armoury, in the event he ended up having to go EVA.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Tau Ceti system, 2nd of February._

As expected, the Hunters did not show up. They weren't the only ones, though neither Liyik, Limid nor Jimaenius showed up, leaving Thel, Zhab and him in the hangar bay. The Sangheili had not armored up in EVA gear, just a combat harness, to apparently exercise his anger if he needed to.

"You two are jumping." Thel said firmly.

"Oh, come on. You and the Human are much better companions for a mission like this! And I hate gravity not being there!" Zhab protested. "I can't even fight at close quarters! If there's a ship there I'll b-"

Thel had evidently grown tired of the Kig-yar's excuses and protests, and drew something from his back leg and threw it at the Jackal. The Kig-yar caught it and stared at it like it was a nuclear bomb.

"What is that?" John asked, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at what Zhab was holding.

"It's an energy cutlass. Kig-yar equivalent of an energy sword." Thel replied. "Now, you two, time to go."

The hangar door rumbled, and then slid open. John closed his eyes and braced himself for the vacuum, but it did not come. He opened his eyes and glanced up in confusion.

"Air shell." Cortana said through his COM. "The shields hold the air in while they're up. When you're clear, we'll close the doors and collapse the shield, so you and Zhab can get to the signal source. Don't sweat, I'll be right in your head."

John grinned beneath his visor.

"Just like old times." He remarked.

"Indeed." Cortana replied.

Thel gestured towards the open hangar door.

"Jump. We'll drop the shields as you go. You two can use the thrusters to get in close." He explained, grabbing a pair of them from a armor rack."

He handed one to John. The Spartan attached it to the back of his armor, where the back hardpoint was located. Zhab had brought out his EVA armor. With a sigh, he attached a thruster pack to the back hardpoint of his armor.

"Let's get this over with before I change my mind." Zhab snarled.

Thel parted his jaws and made for the airtight door out of the hangar.

"Cortana will drop the airshell when I leave. You can use the initial suction as a boost." He mummured. "Good luck. And try not to get killed. Either of you."

He closed the door.

"Stand by to vent." Cortana whispered over the COM. "3… 2… 1…"

The Master Chief released his mag boots. The Hangar seemed to creak eerily. Zhab snapped his jaw and growled slightly.

"Vent."

He heard an explosion, and then silence. The air was sucked from the hangar and the two were pulled into space. The _Spearhead_ was inside the asteroid, and thus the only light came from the frigate as it floated inside of the asteroid. Cortana placed a waypoint on the point where the strange signal was emanating from.

"I'll guide you two in using your thruster packs." She announced over the COM, and then the thruster pack fired several times, giving a few minor course corrections as they glided towards the waypoint. "The asteroid isn't large enough to provide gravity, so you'll have to use magnetic boots when you land if you want to avoid drifting off."

After a minute, they reached one-hundred and fifty meters from the waypoint, and Cortana fired the engines in reverse to slow them down. They reached fifty meters coming in at around five meters per second. Once they were twenty meters away they were coming in at half a meter per second. The asteroid had enough metal inside the outer layer to allow the magnetic boots to provide around 0.9 gees simulated.

John and Zhab soundlessly touched down. The Spartan turned back to look at the Spearhead, which was floated about five hundred meters away, mostly dark accept for a few lit up windows and the hangar and bridge.

"Cortana," He asked. "Are you still with us?"

There was a burst of static for a second before she responded.

"Here, but there's some interference. I'm guessing that our mysterious source is to blame." She replied.

The Chief turned back towards the waypoint and drew a pistol from his hip. Zhab raised his plasma pistol and the two slowly advanced. Turning on his helmet lights, he noticed that the source of the signal was from a rock which was partially buried in the asteroid. It seemed to have been wedged inside the asteroid for a long time by the looks of things, but that didn't make sense if the signal had only shown up this time.

"We have visual." He reported. "It isn't a ship. It's just a rock."

"That can't be right. A mineral deposit wouldn't simply not show up on our sensors when we came here the first time." Vala noted.

The Chief reached the rock. He paused when he noticed that the rock was not the epicenter of the signal, but the signal was inside the rock.

"It's inside the rock." Zhab growled.

"That means that the rock could have been shielding it from our sensors earlier." Cortana mused.

"But the rock is unchanged. What made it suddenly be detected?" Vala retorted.

"It could have been in standby mode and reactivated when it thought that we were gone." Cortana replied.

Vala did not respond. Zhab reached the rock as well and navigated to the other side of it. He looked up at the Spartan.

"How do we find out what's inside?" He asked.

John placed his palm on the "chin" of his helmet. He mused over that for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion.

"Use your energy cutlass to find out. Cut the rock open." He said.

"But that will destroy what's inside of it!" Cortana protested.

"We don't need to find out what's inside of it, we just need it disabled." Vala replied.

The Spartan nodded to the Kig-yar. The Jackal pulled out the cutlass and ignited it. He raised it over his head and plunged it into the rock. It went in slowly, with the jackal pushing hard as it did. He suddenly met heavy resistance. The blade had not fully extended, so it should have gone further. Zhab turned his head in surprise and tried again to no avail.

"I can't… There is something there that I can't get through." He panted with strain.

"Cut around it." John replied.

"Very… Well…" Zhab complied.

The cutlass slowly cut around the rock until it split in half. John knelt and examined what lay in the center of the asteroid. He frowned beneath his visor as his lights fell upon the center of the rock. A rectangular crystal lay in the center of the rock. It shined under the light, but it seemed colorless. The crystal wasn't exactly a rectangle, as it had slanted sides, but it was close enough to count. He picked it up. He held it closer to examine it, but he couldn't make anything of it.

"What is it?" Cortana asked.

"Some kind of Crystal!" Zhab yelled, his Kig-yar pirate nature taking over. "In a whole piece as well, complete with a respectable shape. It should be worth millions!"

"This is the source of the signal?" He asked.

"Yes… You are holding the source in your hand." Vala replied.

John was suddenly reminded of the Forerunner crystal that they had found on Reach. Thinking back, he realized that that had happened only a few months ago. It felt like it had been years ago.

"I don't like it." He said. "It could be dangerous."

Zhab turned and looked at him like he was insane.

"It's a crystal. It's not dangerous." He laughed.

"I've had a few encounters with crystals that warped the fabric of slipspace itself." John growled. "I'm not taking any chances."

He couldn't see Zhab's face, but he was sure that it was a mask of disbelief.

"There's no energy emanating from this crystal, Chief. It shouldn't be dangerous. Maybe it was just a tad reactive to the scanners." Cortana replied.

"Bring it on board the hangar at least. If it proves dangerous on board, we can jettison it immediately." Vala offered.

"If not, we can sell it for a BIG profit!" Zhab laughed. "And I know just where to do that."

Jimaenius joined the COM.

"And how, Zhab, would you know that?" he rumbled, his voice deepened by the COM.

"In my travels as a fugitive of the Covenant, I learned the best Kig-yar black market merchants." He replied.

"That's if it proves safe on board." John remarked.

"Well, then let's find out if it is!" Zhab retorted, crouching his legs to prepare for launch. "Let's go!"

"Stand by. Firing thruster pack in five seconds. Prepare yourselves." Cortana announced.

The Chief leaned forward in preparation, attaching his pistol to his side and tightening his grip on the crystal. The thruster packs ignited as he releaed his mag boots, and him and Zhab slowly climbed away from the asteroid back towards the _Spearhead_. The ship was nearly indistinguishable from the black of the asteroid excluding a few lit up patches, but Cortana led both of them back into the hangar without fault. He heard a the hum of the _Spearhead_ 's shields reenergizing as they entered their limit, and then, with a final burst from the thrusters, they slammed onto the hangar floor.

The entire crew, excluding the Lekgolo, were waiting. John touched down upon the floor and straightened, raising his hand that held the crystal. He opened his fingers and showed it to the crew. Behind him he heard Zhab touch down, then the Jackal hopping around behind him, trying to remove the EVA armor.

The other members of the Squad widened their eyes as they looked upon the crystal. The crystal was around a foot long and half a foot wide and a third foot thick. It seemed almost magical. Zhab appeared again, staring at the crystal almost manically, or at least as manically as a Jackal could look compared to their normal look.

John offered the crystal to Thel. The sangheili held the crystal up to his face, when suddenly, the grey crystal flared with grey, blinding light. The Chief's visor automatically adjusted to protect his eyes, but the rest of the crew excluding Thel, turned away. The Sangheili remained almost fixated on the crystal. After three seconds, he dropped the crystal, and it clanged upon the metal floor. The light died the moment that he released the crystal. He stepped back, looking as stunned as a Sangheili could.

"What the…" He began.

Thel was silent.

"Significant amounts of unknown radiation detected coming from the crystal!" Cortana shouted.

"Unknown?!" The Chief asked, turning around. "We need to get rid of that crystal."

"The radiation isn't fatal, however, it's just… remarkable." Cortana said.

He reached down and picked up the crystal. He moved to throw it out of the ship, when suddenly Thel stopped him.

"No." He uttered. "The Crystal stays."

"It's dangerous! Who knows what it could do in slipspace!" John replied.

"It's important. Very important." He said, grabbing the crystal. "It only reacts if I try to examine it closely. It only reacts to me. I'll keep it safe."

John frowned beneath his helmet.

"Are you su-" He began.

"Yes." Thel interrupted, heading for the elevator. "I'm sure."

John didn't like it, but he let the Sangheili take the crystal to wherever he put it. He asked the Sangheili about it several times later, but he got no response.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **So, That's it. A filler chapter, but an important one. I have some plans for a large interconnected universe after this fanfic, and this chapter is one of the foundation pieces.**

 **Anyway, sorry about the long update time, I wanted to enjoy Christmas fully, plus I've been very busy with another non-writing related project.**

 **Anyway, Happy new year and all that.**


	10. Chapter 9: Welcome aboard!

**It's been a super long time since my last update, and I don't expect to get the next one out any quicker. This year has turned super busy with major exams again coming up, and not even for the last time this year. Hoo boy.**

 **Chapter 8: Welcome aboard!**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Hideout asteroid. February 10th, 2553._

The human AI's choices of combat simulation maps were getting weirder and weirder. Today, they were fighting in the corridors of a old human ship from six centuries ago. Apparently called the Titanic, It had been known as one of the most ironic ships humanity ever built. It had been proclaimed unsinkable, only to do so on its maiden voyage.

The ship was sinking in the sim, and the Squad had to fight their way out. It wasn't a race, officially, but between all of them, It was. Three teams, the Spartan and the Sangheili, Liyik and Limid, Zhab and Jimaenius. Of course, they had enemies to fight through. Covenant and human enemies burst through doors only to get shot down. Zhab's mind cast itself back to the crystal they'd recovered about a week ago.

He had not seen it since the Sangheili had taken it away. Not even the Spartan knew anything about it. Sure Zhab would have loved to sell that crystal, but, at the same time, he kind of respected the Sangheili for taking it away, considering that it appeared to be... Powerful... In some way.

Something grabbed his shoulder and pulled hard on it, bringing him back to the present. A trio of plasma rounds whizzed by. Jimaenius pulled Zhab against the wall.

"Watch yourself." He snarled.

Zhab shook his head to pull himself out if his land of thought.

"Very well." He replied.

"Incoming!" Yelled the Spartan, who was a few meters down another hall parallel to them, and a plasma grenade exploded a few meters down the hall.

The sudden sound left ringing in Zhab's unprotected ears. He grunted and raised his hands to cover his protect his ears.

"Shift." Grunted Jimaenius, raising his spiker.

Zhab nodded twice. He stepped forward and let the Brute take his place at the edge of the wall. Jimaenius leaned over and emptied his clip down the hall. There were a series of cries from the enemy down the hall.

Jimaenius peaked over the wall.

"Clear!" He growled.

He advanced down the corridor, crouching slightly to avoid hitting his head on the human height ceiling. One thing that Zhab couldn't get over was how white this human ship was. The walls were white, the doors were white, the lights were white. Zhab raised his beam rifle and followed Jimaenius.

"You seem distracted." The Jiralhanae noted.

"I've been thinking." Zhab replied.

"You are not really one to think." Jimaenius grunted, inspecting the enemies barricades to check for ambushes. "You tend to take orders or act on instinct. I have yet to see you give something a real think before you do it."

"You know me too well, Jim." He replied.

Jimaenius snorted at the nickname Zhab had given him. He then reached down to his armory belt and pulled out a plasma grenade. He placed it at te center of the barricades, setting it to blow in ten seconds. The two backed up and covered their eyes as the grenade blew. The barricades were rent apart.

They both climbed over the blackened wood, only to see the elevator further ahead in the hall rising upwards, taking the Spartan and the Sangheili with it.

"Argh." Jimaenius growled. "They won."

"A pity." Zhab added, even though he knew they could never really beat the two leaders of the Squad. He'd never seen them beaten in the combat sims, excluding last man standing, and when that brute chieftain had ambushed the Sangheili back on the planet.

The elevator returned, empty. Jimaenius pressed the button for it to open, when two human "Innie" soldiers burst out of a door behind them and opened fire. A few bullets pinged off Zhab's chestplate, and he raised and fired a beam rifle shot in retaliation. Jimaenius raised his spiker and allowed the human to have some spikes. Both humans went down.

Zhab gave a brief snap in annoyance at their interruption. He turned back to see Jimaenius climbing into the elevator. Zhab quickly followed and punched the "up" key. The elevator closed its doors and slowly rose. They arrived on the top deck after about a minute. As soon as they reached the top floor, the simulation ended. Apparently Liyik and Limid had gone down a few minutes ago.

"Simulation over." Cortana announced. "One message received 2 minutes ago, from section 4 HQ."

The human and the Sangheili gave each other and moved to leave. Cortana interrupted before they did so.

"The message is addressed for everyone aboard the Spearhead of Dawn." Cortana notified them.

The Sangheili paused. Then he gave her the order to gather the entire crew to the bridge, and then quickly left. Zhab and Jimaenius exchanged glances and headed into the armory to have their armor removed. The small robotic arms worked quickly and precisely, and within a few minutes, their armor had been removed.

Following that, the two headed for the bridge.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Hideout asteroid. February 10th, 2553._

Thel was not the type who liked waiting, especially for others that he had no idea what they were doing. He grumbled as the bridge doors opened to reveal the Unggoy.

"Who's here?" He grumbled.

The Lekgolo growled from the back. Zhab and Jimaenius both gave affirmatives. Cortana and Vala had already reviewed the file, and both of them were waiting for the crew's response to it. The Unggoy did not answer, and even after a minute, they didn't realise that the crew were glaring at them. Thel grumbled and turned back to the holotable.

"Play the message." He ordered.

"Playing." Cortana announced, and a rectangle expanded from the table. The face of Admiral Walker appeared.

"Hello and greetings, members of The Squad. As you know, you successful planted a tracker on a covenant cruiser. It has been very functional since, but while it has given several serious remnant meet up points, we recently encountered a snag. Recently, one of our informants has notified us that the remnant has stumbled across something big. He vanished a day later, presumed dead. Obviously he asked the wrong question. However, when our tracker is on course for this place or object, or so we think, the tracker is jammed while in slipspace, and doesn't come back until the craft arrives back in known space." He frowned and scratched his beard. "The tracker is unaltered; they haven't discovered it. We need to find out what they've found, if it's dangerous and how to neutralise it if necessary."

The admiral paused and leaned back in his seat. He was silent for several seconds.

"So, we have to board a ship or infiltrate a base and get a hold of the info?" John asked.

Thel agreed and gave him a brief nod.

"However, this needs to be kept quiet. We cannot afford the remnant finding out that we're on the lookout, so we're sending in two informers dedicated to getting this info. That's where you come in. You have an effective warship and an experienced crew. Your mission is escort; you have to protect our informants while they gather this info and then travel to the place and assess the remnant's control of it." Walker finished.

"I feel like we are just mercenaries sometimes." Zhab muttered.

"True." Jimaenius muttered.

"Quiet on my bridge." Thel muttered half-heartedly.

"The two will arrive on the 12th. And for a quick clarification, technically only two of you have greater rank than them, so I'll clarify that. 'Vadam, you occupy the role of captain/shipmaster. That automatically gives you a higher tank than the informants. Master Chief, there technically is no rank of Master Chief in Section 4, but the brass have, after some deliberation, created the rank of Master Chief Command Officer First class. The rank is only existent in Section 4, but holds the same authority as a three-star general. We figured that, seeing as your rank, Master Chief, has become your identity as much as your actual name, and because your public presence is known as the Master Chief, we decided that you will keep your initial first name rank." Walker paused and took a deep breath. "That is all, the informants will have the slipspace coordinates. Good luck."

The admiral's image faded away. Thel walked over to his captain's chair and sat down, heavily engrossed in what had just been said by the admiral. The others began to leave the bridge, except John, who took a seat nearby, laughing softly to himself.

"What is it?" Thel asked, extending a foot to stop his chair from spinning.

"It's just..." John began, "General. How the heck did I get here? Master Chief petty Officer First Class is supposed to be the highest rank that I can reach."

"You're still a Master Chief, though. And besides, I don't like this new 'open' you. It seems weird. And I thought I had humans figured out. Or at least, you." Thel replied.

John turned an raised an eyebrow, followed by a rare joke from him.

"A real downer, aren't you?" He said, with a slight smile.

Thel snorted. He spun his chair back to the front viewscreen. There was nothing ahead of the Spearhead accept the brown wall of the interior of the asteroid.

"It feels quite lonely aboard this ship sometimes." Vala suddenly said.

Thel turned back to John's chair, to find out that the chair was empty.

"Yes... It does." Thel replied. "Do we have a set of coordinates to meet the informants at?"

Just a few Kilometers relative our home asteroid. It would take us about a minute to get there now." Cortana replied, spinning up a hologram at the table, placing a waypoint on the table.

Thel examined the map, before parting his jaws and giving a brief nod.

"So now we need to get this ship into presentable shape." He announced, and reached his finger down and scraped his finger of the floor to check for dust. A fine film of the stuff covered his finger.

"Uh..." He grumbled. "Fun times ahead."

He reached for the button to key the COM, but paused, a different urge overtook him, and he reached for a pouch at the back of his suit, which held the crystal. He felt it before he grabbed it. It radiated energy. He grabbed it and held it out before him. The crystal almost seemed to hum gently. It was magnificent, beautiful... And his. It was his.

"Mine." He whispered faintly. "It's all mind."

Thel turned his thoughts towards the crystal, his mind open... A burst of light filled his vision; five pinpricks of lights flared in the distance; Grey, his crystal... Orange, Green, Purplish Pink and a weakly flaring Red. The sight ended as soon as it came.

Thel staggered backwards, feeling dizzy and nauseated. Most beings would have thrown the crystal away, but Thel couldn't. The crystal was as much a part of him as his hand was; even more than his energy sword. He gave it another fond look, and then carefully placed it back in its pouch.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Hideout asteroid. February 12th, 2553._

The Squad was decked out in full gear and was waiting in the hangar to receive ONI's informants. John looked out again into the open space. No sign of a slipspace rupture signifying their arrival. The energy shields of the Spearhead were the only thing that could be heard. They had left the hideout and were drifting a few miles off.

Thel was the only one who wasn't present, but he was up in the bridge. John checked the clock. Thirty seconds until the ship was supposed to arrive.

He opened a private COM to the bridge.

"Any sign of them?" He asked.

There was a pause, and then Thel responded.

"No. They'll be late. And if they're hoping to drop out straight into the hangar, they have another thing coming. I'm not dropping these shields unless I'm given warning that they're coming." The shipmaster grunted.

"What if they slam into our shields at slipspace transit speed?" The Master Chief asked.

"Then we better record them and blame the incident on their stupidity." Thel grumbled.

The Spartan chuckled and closed the connection.

The time reached zero. The informants were late now. After five seconds, Thel reopened their COM.

"Inbound Slipspace anomaly. Termination in thirty seconds." He announced. "Could be them."

John turned to the rest of the Squad, who were scattered across the hangar.

"Ship inbound. Form line!" He shouted.

There was a grumbled response, and the Squad moved to form a straight line from the Chief's left.

"Slipspace rupture detected. It's them. They will arrive in the hangar shortly." Cortana announced over the Intraship COM.

There was silence in the Hangar as the space before them remained dark, when suddenly a small ship; barely larger than a pelican, sped down from above the ship and spun around and landed slowly.

John examined the ship that had just docked. He didn't recognise it, but it seemed to be some small crew transporter, around 35meters long and made up of three square ship pieces of hull.

A ramp was lowered from the back of the transporter. A human slowly stepped out, followed by a Kig-yar. A quick inspection revealed that the human was a woman, He could not decide which sex the Jackal was, though from what he knew about kig-yar society and the way that Zhab recoiled slightly at the sight of it, he guessed that it was a she.

"She" wore a mostly black set of what looked like robes.

"Greetings." The woman said. "A pleasure to have arrived."

Her voice was confident and measured, extremely controlled. Instantly, John didn't like her. She seemed to similar to the regular ONI people he worked with that held great secrets and looked down on those they worked with.

The ONI jackal snarled something that the Spartan did not understand, but the human seemd to understand and grumbled something back in the Kig-Yar language. John glanced over at Zhab, who seemed slightly cowed by the conversation.

The transport suddenly roared. It closed its door and slowly lifted off. Everyone in the hangar watched as the ship spun, and then accelerated out of the bay and speed out into space. A minute later, a brief blue flash lit up space, and the small craft jumped into slipspace. As soon as it had gone, the two agents turned towards the elevator.

"Master Chief, Take us to the bridge." The woman snarled.

The Spartan moved, and so did the rest of the Squad, but as soon as they did, the Kig-yar squawked, and Zhab stopped in his tracks, whispering something to the rest of the group. They stopped as well, watching on as the three headed towards the elevator.

"What about m-" The Chief began,

"They are not important. Take us to the bridge." The Woman said.

John reached the elevator, pressing the button and standing aside for the agents as they walked in. He had noticed that the woman walked with an uptight pose, her head held high, like they were all beneath her. John didn't see how they could be good agents, as surely their superiority attitudes would make them difficult to trust and give info to.

The elevator ascended rapidly. The doors swung open to reveal a near empty bridge, with Thel standing some way away, gazing out into space. He heard the elevator and turned. He whispered something to Cortana or Vala, and the ship rumbled. The engines had come to life, and the ship was now underway.

Just seeing the Sangheili reassured the Spartan somewhat. It gave him the sense that he wasn't alonewith these ONI agents, whom he was starting to dislike more and more.

"Ah." The woman said. "A pleasure to see you, captain. Now, where is your AI's interface port?"

Thel seemed slightly put out by their initial greeting, but he gestured to the tower behind him.

"Both of our AI are currently in the system." He told them, as they withdrew a chip.

"This chip isn't an AI, captain. This is a simple memory crystal with system coordinates. This is the location that we need to get to. As soon as possible. So we'd like to leave immediately." She replied, sounding somewhat annoyed with him.

"Very... Well." He replied.

The woman inserted the chip for a second, then withdrew it.

"There is your coordinates." She said distastefully.

Thel turned towards one of the consoles around the bridge, pressing a few of the buttons.

"Coordinates locked in, engines charged, capacitors charged. All clear from engineering." Cortana announced.

"Good." Thel replied, jaws parting. "I advise you to take a seat."

John didn't need to be told twice. He sat immediately in the nearest chair, noticing it creak slightly as he sat. The agents, however did not.

"We are perfectly accustomed to slipspace travel." The woman protested.

Thel didn't reply, simply bracing his legs and pushing a final button on the console. The engines roared. The gee force sent the Kig-yar stumbling backwards slightly.

"Now." Thel said ambitiously, "Let's test our drives theoretical maximums."

He slammed a lever forward. There was a beep from the console, and the white space exploded from in front of the frigate. Slipspace expanded across the viewscreen instantly, leaving a blur of stars outside the ship.

Normally, you couldn't feel the acceleration of a ship while it was in slipspace, but this time was the exception. The deck vibrated, and there could be a fain humming heard. The two agents lost their footing and were thrown across the bridge. Thel was holding on tight to the console. It must have been a trick of the the light, but John sword he saw a faint grey shield of energy around Thel. The Sangheili laughed, and the ship began to increase its vibrations; John wondered if this was an effect of the crystal that Thel had.

Before he could say anything, though, the Sangheili pulled the lever backwards. The ship suddenly gave a hiss; The vibration stopped, and slipspace suddenly exploded in front of them. A planet lunged forward towards them, growing from a speck into a huge sphere in the sky. The deceleration suddenly hit the ship, throwing everything that wasn't bolted down forwards, nearly pulling the Chief from his chair. He heard the two ONI agents cry out as they were thrown across the bridge again. The slipace journey had taken less than five minutes, and yet the stars around them no longer looked similar. A green star blazed in the distance. The planet below was a terran one, with several lights across its dark side. A couple of ships drifted around it.

The engines kicked in, bringing sound back to the ship.

"We have reached our destination." Cortana announced, sounding stunned.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Well, guys thanks for all the reviews and favs and all that, see you again soon enough hopefully.**


	11. Chapter 10: Scum and Villainly

**Chapter 10: Scum and Villianly**

 _Unknown MRS class stealth cruiser, Somewhere nearby the hideout asteroid, February 10th, 2553._

"Uh... Chieftain, you may want to see this." A voice came through the speakers from the bridge.

Brute Chieftain Kursnow was in the middle of a vigorous training session with several of his best fighters. His new gravity hammer felt lighter than his ancestral one that that younger brute had stolen. The younger one would pay for his insolence. He growled and keyed the mic in his power armor.

"What is it, Bridge? I'm a bit busy here." He muttered, gesturing for the others to stop.

"The human ship just rendezvoused with another ship and left." The brute at the bridge replied.

"So? Follow it! We have the tracker, don't we?" He shouted back.

Even through the suits receivers, he felt the brute on the bridge jerk back involuntarily.

"It's not that we don't know where they are, it's just... Chieftain, they're at Arann. That's almost a hundred light years away. They got there in less than a minute." He finally replied.

"What?!" Kursnow yelled. "That's not..."

"-possible, I know, but somehow... The tracker doesn't lie. They're there. "

"The question is, why and how..." Kursnow grumbled, turning to leave the training room. "Come on boys, we've got work to do!"

The other Jiralhanae followed him. He reached the door out headed out for the bridge. There was no elevators on the cruiser, so the Jiralhanae had to use several sets of stairs to get to the bridge. Kursnow didn't mind; the walk was good exercise.

They walked down the central corridor and ascended a flight of stairs. Unlike most Covenant cruisers, the MRS class stealth cruiser did not have the usual purple lighting throughout the ship. The lights were simple; white and grey. The corridor was mostly grey and actually looked very similar to a UNSC ship corridor, due to the somewhat incomplete nature of the cruiser.

The bridge opened out from the doors in a semicircle, with consoles arrayed along the "curve" which was where the monitors were located. The bridge had an elevated platform in the centre, with a command chair sitting upon it. The bridge was quiet excluding a few taps from the crew that could be heard.

Kursnow's brutes took their positions.

"Status?" The Chieftain asked.

"About ten minutes ago, a small human transport jumped in and rendezvoused with the human ship we were following. They didn't notice us, but they left immediately. The other ship is still here and charging for a slipspace jump. We haven't revealed ourselves yet, Cheiftain." The helmsman replied.

"The human transport. Do we know it's slipspace charge?" He growled, grinning at the possible opportunity of combat.

"Scanning in burst form. Give me a minute. We have to do this quietly or they'll notice us." The Jiralhanae on sensors growled.

Kursnow clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his seat and watched as they scanned the human transport, which was slowly accelerating away.

"Rating charge. 12 percent. Distance factored, we will catch them before they jump." Sensors announced.

"20 percent engines! Heat plasma coils and go to attack protocol." Kursnow roared.

There was a rumble as the cruiser ignited its engines and dethatched from the asteroid that it was hiding on.

"Main view onscreen." The Chieftain growled.

The screen resolved into a black screen with a star glaring in the distance. A few asteroids could be seen drifting around them. The human transport was identified with a red waypoint. A few attack alarms sounded across the cruiser and the crew began to prepare for one of their first battles in the cruiser.

"Plasma turrets heated and ready." Weapons replied. "Locking on target. They're out of our range, though we could take a few shots along the trajectory, we may get lucky…"

"No. We will destroy this ship properly. Fifty percent on engines." Kursnow roared.

"They're accelerating to emergency velocity. We're still gaining though. We'll be in range in 2 minutes at current speed." Sensors reported.

"Shields up to full charge." The Shield operator muttered.

The cruiser continued on its near straight path, smashing through any small asteroids that got in its way.

"Shall we launch fighters?" Someone asked.

The Chieftain growled a negative. A small timer in the top right of the view screen hit 30 seconds to weapons range. Weapon range was more determined by time to impact than how long the shot would be effective in. After all, the greater the distance a shot was fired from, the more chance there was of it evading as it noticed the round coming in, so range usually was the distance that a shot would impact in five seconds or less.

"How long until pulse laser range?" He asked.

"One minute. Ventral beam range in twenty five." Weapons replied.

"Hold ventral beam and plasma beams. Use the lasers and cripple their engines. I want a broadside flyby. I want that ship decimated. If the GA finds any remnant of it, they'll know this was deliberate. Without a trace, this transport could have hit an asteroid or defected." Kursnow ordered.

"Confirmed. Holding beams. Entering range in ten seconds." Sensors announced.

The Chieftain could not maintain his patience any longer, especially with his target only ten seconds out of range. He leaned forward in his chair.

"BEGIN PREIMTIVE SHOTS!" He roared.

"Yes Chieftain!" Came the reply.

There was a burst of confidence among the crew as they fell into pattern. The pulse lasers opened up with a vengeance, catching the transport in its rear engines and sending it into a roll. The fire ceased as soon as it came. The cruiser slowly to allow its broadside to last longer. The cruiser came within two kilometers of the transport.

"Fire all weapons." Kursnow rumbled with a small grin.

"Aye!" Came the shout.

The cruiser fired with everything it had; plasma beams, pulse lasers, plasma torpedoes and even its ventral beam. A tad bit overkill, but the result was a desired. The human ship rumbled and spun away at the first few shots but disintegrated when the heavier weapons slammed into the hull.

"To dust and ruins." Kursnow replied. "Now chart a course for Arann!"

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Arann orbit, Febraury 10th, 2553_

The bridge was silent for several minutes, and then the informants gave a snort and left the bridge unhappily. Thel stood at the console, still staring at the planet in the distance. Small pricks of light that represented ships were dotted around the planet.

"How did we get here so quickly…" He grumbled.

"During the jump, the crystal you have gave a burst of unknown energy throughout the jump. It's not radiation, so it's not harmful, but that is the only thing that occurred differently during our jump." Cortana replied.

"Hm…" The Sangheili sighed.

"I knew there was something fishy about that crystal at the start." John grumbled, stepping up beside Thel.

"It's not harmful, though." He replied.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the human turn and stare at him for a brief second, then turn back to the planet ahead.

"I do not like these… boarders." Thel grumbled. "They need to lose their attitudes."

"Why do you not discipline them then?" John asked.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" The Sangheili asked, completely alien to the concept. "Back in the days of the Covenant, the way you dealt with officers who gave you disrespect was to either kill them or undermine them."

"I don't think that killing those two would send a good message." Cortana replied.

"I have no idea how you would discipline the two of them. But… Aren't we both higher rank than them, according to the message we received. Why don';t you discipline the two. You'd certainly at least know something about it." Thel said.

The Spartan shook his head.

"I keep on forgetting that." John replied, and then turned, heading for the door out of the bridge. "I will go and have a word with them then."

Thel heard the doors open and close. He stood in the bridge and stared down at the planet for a minute.

"Receiving a transmission from the planet." Cortana announced.

"Show it on the holographic table." He replied.

A brute resolved on the table. He looked around for a second before spotting the Sangheili.

"Elite! What is the reason for your presence here at Arann?" He asked.

"We have come to rest and rearm." Thel lied as quickly as it came to him.

"We? Where is the rest of you crew, then?" The Jiralhanae asked.

"We… had a malfunction in engineering on the way here. We stole this human ship and nearly burnt out the engines getting here. The rest are busy trying to get the engines stable." Thel replied.

"Our scanners are detecting nothing from your engines." The Brute replied.

"Well…" The Sangheili racked his brains to think up something to keep his terrible cover story intact. "The human engines were shielded when we first pic- stole this ship, so I'm not surprised that you can't detect anything."

"Hrm." The brute raised his eyebrow.

He turned away and growled something at a few offscreen people. Thel heard a grunt respond with a cry. The Brute than truned back.

"Your ship will fit into… SH – 536, which is not in use. Is your ship capable of In-Atmospheric operations?" He asked.

Thel turned away and pulled on a headset to get onfirmation from one of the AIs.

"Yes." Vala whispered into Thel's earpiece.

"Yes. It can." He repeated to the Brute.

He nodded. "Sending you the location. You can harbor here for a week free of charge, any further will cost 20 GA credits or 50 Covenant Monetary Units. Very well." The Brute faded.

"Location identified." Cortana told him.

"Engage course." Thel ordered, and then turned to leave the bridge as well. "Inform me when we're moving in to land."

"Aye." Cortana replied.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, SH – 536, Arann, Febraury 11th, 2553_

It had been a day since they had landed on the planet and docked with their specified hangar. Now the crew sat in common room, all of them present, debating on the next course of action. Zhab glanced across the now silent room.

Jimaenius seemed impassive, a master of his emotions. Or at least he evidently understood that he had little part to play in this conversation. The two hunters were standing in rudimentary suits in the shadows of the room. Zhab was somewhat nervous himself. Most of that had to do with the newcomers, particularly the female Kig-yar. In Kig-yar society, females played the lead role, and it was now unnerving to have a obviously much older female sitting in the room.

He knew nothing of her. She was silent most of the time, accept for the occasion word or grunt with the human she came with. Zhab wasn't looking at her the way he would a younger Jackal, as a prospective mate, but as more of a fascination as a possible threat. He swallowed.

"We will get something done today, whether or not we have to do it ourselves." The new human said.

"It would help if we knew what we were looking for in the first place." The Sangheili grumbled.

"As I've told you, it's classified beyond your rank, so stop asking!" She angrily retorted, as this was the tenth or so time the Elite had asked her the same question, or at least implied it.

"Temper, temper." Jimaenius muttered quietly.

Zhab glanced up at his friend and gave a faint chuckle, to only be silenced by a glance from the female Kig-yar. He lowered his head, cowed.

"There is a nearby city, which has a large population of people who may something on the whispers in the uncharted space. Us two will go there today, with or without bodyguards if we must." The human female stated.

The Jackal gave a growl to confirm her side of the bargain as well.

"I still think we should send out at least one observational party before we start sending people out there. We know practically nothing of the temperament of the people here. A human going up and asking questions on what could be sensitive information is hardly going to please them." The Spartan said.

"I agree." The human AI said over the COM system.

"She is not going to be asking the questions alone." The female Kig-yar snarled quietly.

Zhab jerked at the sound of her voice, that had been the most that he'd heard her say in her entire time aboard the ship. There was a silence for several seconds.

"A compromise then? We'll send out a small party to scout the area, and they'll also ask some questions in a couple of some of the more… dodgy places." The Elite suddenly queried.

The two newcomers had a silent staring contest, then had a quick conversation in a language that the Kig-yar did not understand, probably a human language.

"Very well. How long will it take to organize an away team?" Asked the human female.

"Whoever you please, though I would not advise the Unggoy, and I would take Vala with whoever you send in this party." The Elite said.

The two newcomers once again had another conversation. After a minute, they seemed to come to an agreement.

"I will go." The female Kig-yar said. "I will take the Jiralhanae and the Jackal. No AI this time."

Jimaenius got up, seemingly unfazed by the decision. Zhab rose more slowly. He glanced across at the Brute, who glanced back at him, then shrugged.

"Now, _Shipmaster_ ," She said, the word laced with venom, "How to we get off this ship?"

"Follow me. There's an elevator that we connected with when docking." The Sangheili said, and then led them out the door of the common room, and then down a series of corridors through the ship, finally leading them to a lower airlock. He pressed a couple of buttons, opening the inner door. He beckoned them inside of the airlock, which the party did. He closed the inner door and opened the outer door.

"Good luck. Don't get killed." He said through a speaker in the airlock.

The party stepped onto a cargo elevator located directly in front of them. The elevator had obviously been intended for Jiralhanae and Sangheili, for neither Kig-yar could reach it. The female Kig-yar didn't embarrass herself as he did, simply gesturing for Jimaenius to press it for them, which he did. The lift groaned and began to descend.

"Our cover is so. We are the crew of the ship _Forent_. I am the shipmistress. You." She pointed at Zhab, "You're my First mate, Renor."

She turned to Jimaenius.

"You are Merantor, ship security." She said.

"Very well." He grinned.

The lift reached the bottom of the hangar. It passed down one further level, and then stopped at a long, sparsely lit corridor. The group walked down the narrow corridor, exiting at a pair of double doors, which opened into a walkway. Looking down the walkway revealed a large city at the bottom of the hill that the hangar was situated upon. Zhab looked around the hills that surrounded the city below. Rested upon most of the hills and mountains surrounding the city were hangars. Some were inside the mountains, but most were resting on the peaks.

The walkway was long, and the sun was high in the sky.. Zhab heard Jimaenius' spikers clinking on his slightly armored thighs.

 _Turagh!_ ( ** _Kig-yar swear that once again I will decline to translate_** ) He swore, _Why didn't I think of brining a weapon?_

He glanced over at the " _Shipmistress_ ". She also had a plasma pistol attached to her thigh, though this was hidden under her clothing, so only a bulge remained. Once again he swore internally at forgetting to take a weapon of his own.

After around half an hour, they reached the city limits. There were several tall buildings, even on the far outskirts. Their shadows were cast along the empty street. It was eerie.

"Where is everyone?" Zhab asked, looking down an alleyway. It was empty.

"I do not know. I do not like this." Jimaenius said, glancing down another alleyway.

Zhab turned back to the tow others. Suddenly, Jimaenius seemed to notice something behind Zhab, and went for one of his spikers. Then something pressed him hard in the back of the head. Painfully.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Unknown City, Arann, Febraury 11th, 2553_

Jimaenius drew his own weapon as the Brute stepped out from his hiding point, leveling his plasma rifle at Zhab's head.

"Move, and I'll blow this Jackal's head off." He snarled.

Zhab squirmed angrily as the Brute seized the back of his neck.

"Now, me and my boys would like to know what exactly a bunch of mysterious newcomers, who happened to acquire a new GA ship wants here on Arann." He snarled.

There were several sounds of rustling from around them as the rest of the group came out of hiding, all with weapons drawn and pointed.

"We aren't from the GA ship, we're from the _Forent_." The female Jackal snarled, her arm falling to her side and resting against a bulge on her thigh.

So, she was armed. Zhab wasn't. At least Jimaenius had some degree of supporting fire. Though, judging from the situation, that wouldn't make a lick of difference. Suddenly, a possible answer came to Jimaenius. He reached up, as though to scratch his head, and "accidental" brushed his hand off the "danger" beacon on his headset.

"Don't insult my intelligence, Jackal. I know you came from that hangar. Now, you will tell me, what exactly are you doing here on Arann?!" He roared, applying more pressure to the back of Zhab's neck with his plasma rifle.

Zhab flinched as a spark of overspill leapt from the firing current onto his neck. He snarled slightly.

"Why would you even care what our business here in the first place?" The female Kig-yar replied.

"We actually care about our home! I have no intention of letting some secret shenanigans by the GA destroy our planet." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And besides, the remnant would pay handsomely for the capture of any members of the GA. Especially traitors such as yourselves!"

"So you're here for the money… Then why do you say that you care about this planet in the first place!?" Jimaenius asked.

"Because they pay us handsomely if we say that when the civilians are around." He replied nonchalantly.

"So you're bounty hunters, then?" The female Kig-yar asked.

"Of course not." He growled, but it was obvious he was worried someone might hear him state otherwise, even though the streets were deserted.

The street was silent, except for a box perched on a wall in an alleyway falling over, probably the wind- Jimaenius stiffened and sniffed the air. There was no wind. The Jiralhanae he faced seemed to have reached the same conclusion.

"Wait a seco-" He began, positioning his hand to fire the rifle more efficiently.

There was a snap of a plasma field igniting, and the brute dropped Zhab. The brute gaped at the two plasma points sticking out of the center of his chest. Then he fell backwards as the points disappeared. An energy sword hovered in thin air by itself. There was cry from the several Brutes as they saw it. Help had arrived, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

The Brutes opened fire at the hovering sword, which started forward before deactivating, throwing the Brutes into confusion. Jimaenius took advantage of the confusion and swept the two Kig-yar into cover in an alleyway. He mumbled an apology as both protested about getting manhandled by him. He peeked out and raised a spiker, firing several shots at one confused Brute.

The shots struck the unsuspecting enemy in the side, but failed to break his power armor. He ran for cover and fired a few of his own at them. However, the majority of the group had their attention occupied by the cloaked Elite that was making mincemeat of them. Several shots from the plasma pistols, both red and blue, whizzed through the air, but none succeeded on hitting the cloaked Elite.

The female Kig-yar aimed from behind Jimaenius and opened fire. They hit home on its target, and he stumbled and fell as his power armor broke from the punishment.

"Can I have a weapon?" Zhab suddenly asked from beside Jimaenius.

Jimaenius handed him his other spiker. "Have fun."

Zhab opened fire. Most of his shots missed, unsurprising, seeing as he was unaccustomed to the new weapon.

The Brutes that were firing at the floating energy sword, hoping to land a hit on the armor's shields, getting them to flare and reveal the Elite's location. One Brute attempted to body slam the Elite, but hit nothing as he lunged forward. The sword whizzed upwards and into the offending Brute's back. The Brute cried out, but the blow had a side effect. A red plasma round finally landed on the Elite, lighting up his shields.

"THERE! OPEN FIRE!" One Jiralhanae screamed.

The Elite disengaged his sword and ran to the right as the plasma shots intensified. He drew his own pair of rifles and fired. More Brutes fell. As Jimaenius fired his own volley from his spiker, he wondered if the power armor that these Brutes had was slightly poorer quality than the ones in the Remnant. They seemed to break a lot faster.

There were around ten brutes out of the group of twenty-five remaining. Another went down under the Elite's energy sword as he gave a low slice, cutting out it's legs. Zhab and Jimaenius coordinated fire took down another. Suddenly, one drew a plasma grenade and primed it, taking aim for the Jimaenius and the Jackals.

"Get back!" Zhab yelled as the Brute drew back his arm.

The Elite, however, was faster, and fired a plasma burst straight at the hand holding the grenade. It struck the wrist, hitting the grenade and causing it to primitively detonate. This took out two more Brutes. The rest began to back away from the battleground, obviously uncertain of their next move. Their leader was dead and so was around half of their group. Suddenly, one turned and ran. About half of the remaining ones also did the same.

Jimaenius stepped out fully and opened fire, tearing another one's armor apart. The female Kig-yar nailed another one in both thighs. The cloaked Elite suddnely leapt forward and spun around, using the momentum of his spin to increase the power of his swing. The first swing went straight through a Brute's chestplate. As it staggered backwards in shock, The swing continued and ended with it spinning around one more time and slamming hard into another Brute's midsection.

And it was finished. The Brute collapsed off the energy sword. The Jackals and the Brute stepped out from their cover. The Elite disengaged his cloak, confirming Jimaenius' suspicions. It was the Shipmaster.

"How did you get here so quickly?" The female Kig-yar asked.

"If you press the button to go down again on the elevator, it goes down to an underground rail system that takes you out about 300 meters down there." He said, pointing back the way that they had come in the first place. "We should go. The Brutes may come back, but they're not stupid enough to come after us in the hangar."

"Wait… The elevator does that? What a waste of half an hour… Anyway, Come on." Jimaenius said, gesturing for the Kig-yar to follow him.

They began to head for the elevator, when suddenly a beam rifle fired from above, landing between the Elite's feet. He growled and looked up. At the top of one building, a pair of Brutes with beam rifles took aim at them. From around another corridor, another large party of Brutes could be heard charging from another street.

"Time to get out of here." The female Kig-yar and Elite said.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **So, I'm finally back, or well, not fully back I think. I'll not sure how much I'll be writing at again, but I'll be trying a hit harder then usual. Anyway, I wrote another action scene into the story, so this chapter isn't so much a filler as the other two. Heh, I've been watching too much Star Trek recently. Anyway, have a long chapter to make up for it.**


	12. Chapter 11: Here and back thereonceagin

**Chapter 11: There and back once again**

 _Unknown City, Arann, Febraury 14th, 2553_

Having spent several days on the Spearhead following their encounter, The Squad had decided upon a course of action. Which, however had led to them all (Excluding the Lekgolo and the Unggoy) being stuck inside a large Bar in the city. John did not feel confortable without his MJOLNIR in such an exposed situation such as this. All he had was a magnum strapped to his hip, to avoid giving himself away (He had to admit that a Spartan in full MJOLNIR would have raised an eyebrow or two,) but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Not being one for alcohol, he took a sip from a glass of water he had ordered. He was sitting alone in one of the furthest back tables, using the shadows to conceal himself. He job was to watch over all of the Squad and help them if necessary. He glanced across the room and located all the members present in the partying.

Thel was sitting beside Sarah (The woman from ONI, whose name they had discovered with great difficulty), more or less being her bodyguard while she asked the more devious looking Brutes questions on the rumors of whatever it was in deep space, and more accurately, where to find it. They were at a table with three Brutes, All deep in conversation.

Zhab was sitting with a group of other Jackals, all of them gambling on some holographic game. The Squad had a certain amount of money that they could spend during a mission, and then it would be pulled from wages. John wondered if Zhab would lose everything that night.

John finally spotted Jimaenius with a group of Brutes, also conversing with them. The other ONI member, the Jackal, was nowhere to be seen. He shook his head and leaned back into the shadow.

"Heeeeyy, is anyone sitting here?" Someone asked.

The Spartan looked up to see a Sangheili staring down at him. The Sangheili was swaying, apparently drunk. John was surprised that that was possible, but he said nothing. Another thing that bothered the Spartan was the fact that the Sangheili was speaking English, albeit a drunken version of it.

"Thanksss…" He muttered and slumped in the chair on the other side of the table.

The Chief watched him suspiciously from the other side of the table. He remained silent as the Sangheili gestured for a waiter bring him another drink which he downed quickly.

"Have you heard the rumors?" The Sangheili muttered drunkenly. "'Bout the deep space… thingies with the loyalist remenant groups

The Chief sensed an opportunity to pick up some information of his own on the deep space rumors, and he shook his head, not saying anything.

"Well, I ain't heard much, but anyway I heard from some Brutes down in Guriod City, on this very planet to be precise, **(Now this would be actually be in drunken speak, but anyway, I digress)** that they've found something big. I'm presuming some old covenant station or perhaps some Forerunner thingy… They didn't clarify that much. But whatever it is, they think it'l give 'em some advantage over the GA- Now, if you'll excuse me…" He suddenly turned and called for another drink.

The Chief sat in silence as the Sangheili drank away once again. When the Sangheili had finished the glance, the Chief spoke.

"Interesting. Tell me more."

"Ah! Yes! Back to them. I ain't got much to tell you besides that, but I have to say, I'm curious about what it is out there. Maybe they're just lying. Wouldn't put it past 'em. Them Brutes are a cretinous bunch of liars…" The Sangheili grumbled.

They were interrupted by a smashing of glass from the other side of the bar. The Chief quickly glanced acroos the bar to see of any of the Squad were involved with whatever had smashed it. Sure enough, the group of Brutes that Jimaenius was talking with had started the fight. One of them had walked into a Sangheili who had been taking a drink. The Chief felt his hand fall slowly grip his Magnum.

An argument had sprung up already between the two groups, with some beginning to draw weapons. Jimaenius had also drawn his, though probably only for self-defense rather than attack. John saw that Thel was watching the events unfolding, with a look of unease written on his face, which John had learned what that looked like from studying Thel's subtle expressions during the Sims back on the Spearhead. The two locked eyes briefly, confirming that both were ready to intervene if they had to get Jimaenius out of there.

The Bar was quiet as what appeared to be the leaders of both groups had an argument, then suddenly, The Sangheili drew his energy sword and slashed at the Brute, only for the sword to be deflected by the blade of the energy mace of the Brute. The bar exploded into chaos as both species went to all-out war in the Bar. The Chief heard the crackle of plasma bolts, and instinctively ducked. A mostly-melted class whizzed by his head. He quickly shifted and took cover behind a flipped table. Most of the people in the Bar had little to no armor, so most shots that connected took down the targets. The Chief drew his pistol and raised it, shifting himself out of cover to examine the bar. It was a madhouse. About sixty percent of the people inside were fighting. The two leaders that had started it were still fighting in the center of the chaos, the Brute beginning to overpower the clearly inexperienced Elite, who was rapidly retreating.

John suddenly heard something shift behind him and turned. There was a single unarmored Brute with a spiker raised staring at him. Evidently having something against humans, he opened fire. The Chief could see this coming, and was on his feet and moving fast than the Brute could have predicted. The Ape's eyes widened as John closed the distance and sprang upwards, while not going as high as the MJOLNIR would have allowed him, he still sprang over the Brute's head. He landed in a kneeling position and fired a shot from the pistol, taking down his attacker in a single shot. He heard something in his right ear, and once again ducked as the lifeless body of a jackal was thrown overhead. It's killer, a Sangheili, roared at John when he noticed him. John raised the pistol and fired five shots, taking down the Elite before he had even shifted his weapon.

John spared a few seconds to locate the rest of his Squad. Jimaenius was running to the door, avoiding the shots fired at him by and angry Elite. A carbine round slammed into the back of the Sangheili's head, taking him down. Zhab was, of course, the source. The two ONI informants had already left the building. Thel was dueling with another Sangheili. Thel twisted as his opponent lunged and he slid the split in his blade down the length of his opponent's blade. He twisted it, disarming the opponent. He then kicked the Sangheili in the groin, which took him down. Thel turned and slowly headed towards a hole in the wall of the Bar, and stepped out and into the night.

John was by now probably the only one of the Squad that was left in the bar. The Chief suddenly heard the humming of a plasma grenade. The grenade slammed into a fall a few meters away. The Spartan once again took cover. The wall exploded. John jumped over the wall and began sprinting towards the hole in the wall, keeping low to avoid plasma shots whizzing through the air.

Even outside, the chaos from the bar could be heard. The hole that the Chief had exited through had opened out into a back alleyway. The Spartan took off one of his shoes and took an out a magazine for his pistol and reloaded the pistol. He began his trek to find his way back to the main street and his way back to the Spearhead. Personally, the Spartan hoped that they had found out everything that they needed to know on this planet. The Chief did not like having to look over his shoulder every five minutes to ensure that there was not a hostile staring at him, ready to attack him.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Unknown City, Arann, Febraury 14th, 2553_

"What exactly is it?" Zhab growled, tightening the pressure on the Jackal's neck.

"I-I don't know! I don't know!" He yelled out desperately. "All I know is where it is! That's all I know! I swear!"

Zhab was not exactly a big Kig-yar, but he could look pretty frightening when he wanted, plus he was the only one who had a gun in this situation, which he had pressed against the chest of the Jackal he was interrogating.

"Then where is it?!" Zhab asked.

The Jackal stated a series of coordinates. Zhab repeated them several times, to get them into his head.

"Is that all you know?" Zhab asked.

"Y-yes… yes!" The Jackal repeated.

"Good." He growled, and whacked the Jackal in the head with the Carbine butt.

The Kig-yar crumpled at his feet. Zhab didn't exactly have a reason to like the Jackal in particular; that Jackal had cost around 4,000 GA credits in the gambling that they'd been doing before the bar fight. Well, they weren't lost exactly, seeing as Zhab had "reclaimed" his loses when the fight had gone out of control.

"You made it out in one piece, then?" A deep voice rumbled from behind Zhab.

The Jackal gave a faint grin, or at least the Kig-yar equivalent of it. It was Jimaenius, of course.

"Yes, I did. I didn't walk away empty-handed, though. I may have… acquired some additional winnings." Zhab said with a grin.

Jimaenius snorted. "All you Kig-yar are the same."

"Anyway, Let's get back to the ship before the rest of the guys in there come wanting it back." Zhab replied.

Jimaenius sighed, but the two began the long trek back to the ship.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, SH – 536, Arann, Febraury 15th, 2553_

The majority of the Squad was present in the bridge of the Spearhead. They were finally finished on this planet. Both Sarah and Zhab had stumbled across the coordinates to whatever it was they were hunting for, and now the two ONI informers wished to go and see what exactly was out there before they reported to ONI what it was. Thel wanted to get off of this planet anyway, but he still wasn't sure if he wanted to go to another Covenant Loyalist base.

All the same, Cortana and Vala were in the process of shaking down the Spearhead's three reactors to prepare for launch. With them having landed for several days, the engines and reactors were shut down to save some energy, so it took around and hour to bring them all back online.

"How long until we're ready?" Thel asked.

"2 minutes until we're good to go." Vala replied.

"However, the slipspace drive is ready to jump as soon as we get up." Cortana stated.

"Good. Good." Thel replied, turning around and examining one of the consoles in the bridge.

He still actually had no idea what most of them did, though he had figured out how the engine console and was gradually learning the shield system. Even though Cortana and Vala could control the ship by themselves, It would always be handy to be able to take manual control if the AI were not present or were unable to control the ship in an automated fashion.

Everyone, except the Lekgolo were present in the bridge, all waiting for them to get underway, having just concluded the argument over weither or not they would go to the coordinates.

"Shipmaster?" Someone asked over the intraship COM, presumably the Lekgolo, asked.

"I'm listening." Thel replied.

"This is Engineering. The reactors are all functioning at full capacity. We are ready for Launch."

"Very well. All hands stand by to launch." He took his seat at the captain's chair. "Vala, open the hangar door and detatch moorings. Cortana, engage thrusters for twenty seconds. Full power."

The ship rumbled as the thrusters heated up, and the moorings detached. The ship began to rise as the thrusters kicked on. Thel mentally ticked down the seconds that the thrusters were on to know when to tell Cortana to engage the main engines. Not that he probably needed to, but he felt better giving the commands in the first place.

"Main engines on, 55 percent." He ordered as he counted to nineteen.

The engines roared to life, and Thel sagged slightly in his chair for a second before the gravity systems countered the G-force. The bow of the frigate leaned upwards. It took about ten minutes for the ship to leave the planet's atmosphere. Thel glanced over his shoulder to notice that the Unggoy, Zhab and Jimaenius had left the bridge.

They could have jumped immediately, but Thel wanted to get a bit more distance between them and the planet before they jumped away.

"Are there any other ships nearby?" He asked.

"No… Hold on a second; There's some kind of… Unknown Covenant ship just left a station in orbit. They seem to be on a similar course to ours, though not on a full intercept course."

Thel turned and glanced at the holotable, which had a detailed radar of all ships around Arann. He watched the unknown ship's course for a minute, then shrugged it off, although he felt somewhat uneasy looking at it. He shook his head.

"Make ready to jump to the coordinates." Thel said, settling back in his chair.

"Aye, lining up and engaging slipspace reactor." Cortana replied.

Outside the viewscreen, in front of the ship, the slipspace rupture engaged and expanded in front of them. Thel glanced back at the holotable for a second, and the holograph faded as the ship left that dimension. He leaned back and closed his eyes for a second, then looked up. Outisde the ship, the blackness of slipspace suddenly dissolved into a light blue tunnel.

Thel suddenly stood up.

"What the…" He began.

"Scanning… A large change in the properties of slipspace has been detec-" Cortana began, the suddenly paused.

"Unknown signature detected behind us." Vala announced.

Thel turned to a viewscreen on the right. It quickly flashed to a rear shot of the ship, showing a black speck at the end of the blue tunnel.

"Another ship detected." Cortana suddenly stated.

The other three on the bridge suddenly stood up in shock. Thel turned back and shrugged at them, not knowing what was going on.

"It appears to be the other ship from Arann. They're rapidly gaining on us." Vala announced.

"It's just like Reach again." Cortana said, almost to herself.

"What are you tal-" Thel began, but a warning cut him off.

"The ship has closed to 30 kilometers, detecting several plasma buildups along the hull, they're charging weapons." Vala said.

"Charge out own weapons, make ready to fire." Thel growled, turning back to the holotable.

"20 kilometers. Warming up weapons." Vala stated.

"Wait!" Cortana suddenly shouted, actually materializing on the holotable, "If you fire, the plasma will cause more problems to us than them; Plasma here has different properties here!"

"How is that possible?" Sarah asked from behind Thel.

"I don't kn-" Cortana began, but Vala interrupted.

"5 kilometers!" She yelled, flashing the rear view on the central viewscreen. The unknown design ship loomed before them, glowing red in several places as plasma prepared to discharge.

"Evas-"

Thel was too late, the ship fired several plasma lances. As they lashed towards the frigate, suddenly, they all turned away and disappeared into the blueness.

"What?" Thel asked, for one of the first time in his life, he was speechless as the plasma disappeared.

"That's what Cortana was talking about." John snarled, stepping forward towards Thel.

"Returning fire." Vala announced, and there were several thuds as the plasma missile pods fired.

"Wait-" Cortana began, but it was too late.

The plasma missiles spiraled towards the cruiser behind them, before suddenly veering off in random directions. Thel snapped is lower jaws as he thought hard for a second, then an idea came to him.

"If we can't destoy them, we'll outrun them." He sprinted across the bridge and headed for the COM microphone.

The Spearhead suddenly lurched to the right unexpectedly; Thel fell and hit the floor, recovering with a flimsy roll.

"Report! What on Sangheilios was that?" He asked.

"Plasma impact on the shields. Holding at 97 percent." Cortana reported. "There's already a lot of plasma floating around in here. We need to get out of here."

Thel grabbed the mic and keyed Engineering.

"We need everything you got. Overdrive all reactors and divert to engines." He ordered.

"Very well." One Lekgolo replied.

The engine's pitched slowly increased. The Covenant ship began to fall behind, still firing widely at them. Then it suddenly closed the gap once again. The Spearhead rumbled again.

"Shields down to sixty-eight percent!" Cortana announced.

"How are they keeping up with us?" Thel asked, checking over the reactor monitors, which stated they were all running at 150%, running high in the redline zone.

"I think that, because we're creating the ether, they're perfectly able to keep up with us without straining their engines because we're creating the tunnel, they're merely following us." Vala replied.

Slipspace was ablaze with orange plasma; with it flying everywhere. Thel glanced across the bridge, staring at several screens, all flashing red warnings.

"Damn it." He muttered. "Only one way out. Strap in."

He took his seat and the other three did the same.

"Vala, Cortana, Fire at will." He growled.

There were several rumbles and bangs as the ship opened fire with its weapons. Another plasma round slammed head on into their shields. Their shields had fallen to 13%, with its integrity very low, some small plasma traces were coming through small gaps and burning small holes in the Titanium AAAA plating.

"Their shields are gone! They're falling back, but the plasma is still present." Cortana announced.

"Wait until they drop out then drop us out a second later." Thel growled. "Cease fire all weapo-"

A heavy plasma lance suddenly smashed through their shields and slammed into the undercarriage. The Spearhead twisted awkwardly, but still maintained its course.

"The reactors are failing! They can't handle the overdrive!" One of the Lekgolo suddenly yelled over the COM.

"Bring them back into nor-" Thel began, but was once again interrupted by another plasma impact.

The plasma torpedo slammed into the right engine carriage. The Spearhead spun, spinning around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees and scrapping the edge of the ether. The ether suddenly shattered, and the Spearhead fell into darkness. Thel was jostled around and slammed the back of his head into the back of the chair, and everything went black.

The Sangheili came back to consciousness with a jerk. The air was cold around him, and he couldn't see anything. Not even any stars out the main viewscreen. The gravity systems were online

"Hello? Anyone?" Thel asked.

"You're awake." John muttered.

"Yes. It seems so. Where are we?" He asked.

"Unknown." Cortana said, appeaing on the holotable, with Vala appearing beside here. "All scanners are down. We're operating on our internal power. We have about an hour before we shut down. All the reactors are gone. We've been stuck here for about an hour as well."

"So, we're stuck." Sarah said, sounding annoyed.

"Yes." Cortana said.

"It's all that crystal's fault." John growled, turning on his helmet lights. "I warned you that it would do something. Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere with no power."

"What crystal?" Sarah asked.

Thel drew the crystal and stared at it. It glowly grey, another light in the darkness that surrounded them.

"This one." He whispered.

"You never reported this." Sarah accused. "We read your files before we arrived."

"We all have our secrets." Thel muttered.

John sighed angrily. Something about the crystal had inherently angered him from the very start. Thel resolved to ask John about it if they got out of this. But John's accusations had awoken another thought.

"Maybe… If it got us here, then it can get us out of here." Thel said, holding up in front of his face.

"I seriously doubt that it will do anything." Cortana replied.

Thel ignored her and drifted to the nearest console. He planted the crystal upon it. The glow lit up the dead consoles. Thel thought as he did; trying to reach his mind out to it in the way that he had caused it to light up. It felt almost instinctual, the way he did it. But, after five minutes, nothing had happened. He sighed, accepting defeat, and released the crystal. It drifted across the console, occasionally scraping off it.

"I guess not." He muttered.

Then he heard a whump. A flash of grey lit up the bridge. He spun himself around and stared at the crystal. It was fixed in the air above the console. Suddenly, it gave a pulse of grey energy. This energy lit up the bridge again; it flowed throughout the consoles in the bridge.

"What the…" John began, when it gave a final pulse.

The pulse flowed through the circuits, and everything lit up. Outside, slipspace contorted and flashed from blue back to a normal black. The engines were roaring at full capacity once again, and gravity was restored.

"All systems restored!" Cortana announced. "All reactors are offline, but we still have power…"

The crystal behind them glowed continuously, powering the ship all by itself. For about ten seconds, the ship continued as though nothing had happened, and then, as quickly as it started, the slipspace drive died and stars winked into life al around them. Gravity died, but the lights and some systems remained on.

"Report!" Thel ordered, drifting back over to his chair.

"Reactor one and two are offline; reactor three is operating at a 30 percent capacity maximum. We've arrived at the coordinates. Running scans on the nearby planet. We are on an intercept course, which we will arrive at in three days and twenty hours, closest approach in four days and fifteen minutes." Cortana reported. "Scanning the nearby planet. It's a gas giant, with 3 satellites…"

Cortana's voice died as she said that.

"What is it?" Asked Thel.

Cortana said nothing; she merely brought up a picture of the planet, zooming in and enhancing the image on a satellite in orbit of the planet. For a second, Thel didn't know what he was supposed to be seeing, then it suddenly hit him. This was what the they'd come for, what the Covenant had been after.

It was a Halo.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Heheh. Apologies if this update seems a bit short or rushed, I was writing this on a deadline. But whatever. R &R, I guess (Only recently figured out what that meant, lol) Anyway, borrowed a bit from FTL Kestrel Adventures at the end there, lol. Anyway, see you guys later.**


	13. Chapter 12: Zero Six

**Oh dear. It's been nearly 2 months since I updated; and I have no real good excuse for it either. Not good. What can I say; I got distracted by other things in life. Real nightmare. Anyway… Here's another chapter.**

 **Also, from now on, I'm going to start referring to the portions of the Spearhead with a couple of abbreviations.**

 **Engine housings – As you know, A UNSC frigate is shaped somewhat like a Y from top-down. Housing refers to the two rear "prongs" of the engines.**

 **Binaries – Refers to the main engine thrusters. On the Spearhead, there are five thrusters at the end of each engine housing; One is large, four are small, generally used to turn. The binaries are the large engines that provides the main forward thrust.**

 **Triteries – The other four thrusters on the Spearhead used to maneuver from the rear.**

 **Under and upper carriages – As you know, the front of a UNSC frigate is split into two parts. These will be referred to as carriages, under and upper.**

 **For anyone wondering; the sim room is on the port "fin" of the carriages and the armory is on the right "fin". The engine "quarter" is located in a direct vertical line under the bridge and straight back and taking up all of the ship behind that point. The ship is 380 meters tall, 780 meters long, and 150 wide. The crew quarters and common room are located three decks down from the bridge. The hangar is on the rear bottom of the ship. There is one pelican, one phantom, a spirit, and wraith, scorpion and two warthogs, both LAA/V and a seraph fighter.**

Chapter 12: Zero Six

 _Unknown Halo planetary system, 15th February 2553_

Becoming fully self-aware was a challenge for an AI. They went from fulfilling their objectives to their own personal thoughts. It was not an easy experience to explain; One day you suddenly gain self-awareness, at least to a small degree. Then there is the realization that you are not bound by initial programming vectors. Choice. Something incredible and yet difficult to develop. Most Smart AI were generally given a month or two to "blossom" before they were deployed into service. Sharing a single system with another AI was also very cramped.

Vala reset her emotional subroutines; the AI equivalent to a sigh. Cortana was busy relaying the system damage to the bridge crew; Vala was cataloguing all damage to the hull; all breaches and overall hull integrity.

"We only have power for life support, sensors and stealth systems. Weapons mostly undamaged. Long range COM dish is gone. Shield capacitors are functional, but lack power. Engines have some damage along the outer casing and regulators; they are all repairable." Cortana informed the crew over the COM. "Sim rooms will be disabled, lacking power. Reactor one and two are offline pending repairs; reactor three is capable of thirty percent total power. Backup battery is badly damaged and inactive. Slipspace drive has completely liquefied, we'll need a new one to get to slipspace."

Thel growled quietly.

"Vala, hull status?" He asked.

Vala finished the catalogue and calculated several values.

"Multiple hull breaches detected across multiple decks. 32 % of exterior rooms and hallways have been breached throughout the ship. Large hole on the center undercarriage. Total ship integrity rated at 84 %." Vala concluded.

"Very well, thank you." The Sangheili collapsed backwards into his chair.

Doesn't look good, does it? Cortana said.

No. Vala sighed. But what can we do?

Not very much at all. Probably one of the biggest problems of being an AI. Not being able to do anything. So Vala did one of the only things that she could. She fed a little extra power in the long-range sensors and began a scan of the planet and it's orbiting satellites. The results were not good. Immediately, Vala began to register dozens of Covenant ships in-system. By one minute she'd already catalogued more than a hundred and fifty ships, and her sensors had detected a huge, high charity-like station located at the "north" of the Halo.

"Oh, Dower." (Another Sangheili swear) She muttered aloud.

I+-+-+I

 _Gutsis System, Open space, Unknown MRS class stealth cruiser. Unknown time, 2553._

Kursnow clenched the handrests of his chair as his ship fell out of slipspace. He had no choice in the matter of retreat; the ship would be destroyed if they remained in the slipstream any longer.

"Status?" The chieftain asked.

"Hull is badly damaged!"

"We've lost more than a third of weapons!"

"Chieftain, we have several hull breaches!"

"We have multiple casualties!"

"Shields disabled!"

"Life support badly damaged!"

"Engines operable at half power maximum!"

The sheer amount of warnings Kursnow received was enough to make him snarl slightly. There were so many that he couldn't make out individual assessment.

"Will everyone shut up and let me hear you individually?!" He growled.

The reporters shut up, then gave the reports in sequence. Kursnow listened, then sighed after being given a full image of the ship status.

They had hull damage, but were still in one piece. Most internal systems were damaged but intact. One small blessing. Kursnow gave the order to repair the ship using materials from the vehicles that they had on board.

He growled as he noticed the tracker on the human ship was still intact. During the battle, he'd noticed that it had disappeared after they began to withdraw.

They had been resting in the station above the planet, when the sensors had detected the ship making ready to leave. Against all odds, they managed to decouple and break off from the station in time to catch the ship about to leave.

From there, things became more confusing. Apparently they'd jumped to slipspace at the same time, and wound up in some kind of tunnel. Following a brief engagement, both ships broke off after sustaining heavy damage. Apparently fighting in slipspace was not only possible, but extremely deadly, especially to both sides.

"How long until we are able to get moving again?" The Chieftain asked.

"I'm not sure, chieftain. Maybe three days, maybe a week. We'll see." was the reply.

The Jiralhanae ground his teeth together. That was the second time that they'd escaped him. He'd catch them eventually. He knew that. But the time in between was beginning to get on his nerves.

I+-+-+I

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Unknown Halo planetary system, 15th February 2553_

That "night", the majority of the crew of the Spearhead slept on board the modified spirit dropship they had on board. The Lekgolo were busy repairing the reactors, hoping to have at least one repaired by the time they approached Halo. The gravity generators had been switched off, so the dropship was the only place with gravity to sleep.

Liyik and Limid were the only two asleep in their airtight rooms, as those were the only ones that held a methane atmosphere. John was also asleep in the his room on the Spearhead to keep an eye, or more accurately, ear, on the Unggoy. The last thing that they wanted that Unggoy runnign baout a ship undergoing extensive repairs.

It had been years since the Chief had slept in a gravity-less room. He was tied to his bed with a belt to stop him floating off. He was restless; partially because the Unggoy continuously were yelling and jumping around the their rooms.

John sighed and unattached the belt. He slowly began to drift upwards, but he twisted and grabbed his bed, and then reached out towards the shelf beside it and detached the manoeuvring pack he had for moving around the gravity less environment. He strapped it on and gave a little burst towards the door.

It detect him an opened, and he gave another spurt, lifting him into the hallway outside. The majority of lights on the ship were off, but the one at the top of the corridor was on. John saw someone drift by, or more accurately, he saw their shadow.

He turned and slowly headed along the corridor. Having reached the end, he looked both ways, and spotted Thel drifting down the corridor to his right.

"Thel?" He asked uncertainly.

The Sangheili grabbed a handrail to stop his drift and turned back towards the Spartan, who was drifting down the corridor behind him.

"Couldn't sleep either?" He asked.

John slowed his speed and gave a brief nod. The Sangheili sighed and gave himself another push down along the corridor. John engaged his thruster pack to keep up.

"Where are you going?" John asked.

"Engineering." Thel replied, stopping to open a door to the engineering elevator. "I want to check on the repair process."

John followed him into the elevator. The Sangheili and him grabbed the handrails to avoid getting slammed into the ceiling when the elevator descended.

The trip took less than 30 seconds. As the elevator reached the bottom, a pair of glass doors could be seen beyond the elevator doors.

The two drifted forward, and the elevator doors closed, with the glass ones opening after the elevator ones closed. The room beyond was the engine "Quarter" of the Spearhead.

The three power cores of the ship could be seen in the center of the room, with a series of elevated walkways surrounding them. The center and left core were dark, and the one on the right seemed to barely be function.

"We are going back to another Halo." Thel muttered.

"I know." The Spartan replied. "Almost every time we go to a halo, it sets some big event in motion. I wonder what this one will be."

"I cannot say. But our options are limited. The battle shot of our main COM dish, and without it, we're stuck her without backup. We have no slipspace drive and basically no power." The Sangheili sighed. "And I don't know our options. There's a huge fleet around the halo, and we have little to know offensive capabilities. I... do not know what to do."

John glanced over at the Sangheili, who was holding onto a railing, face set in though and... was that worry? The human shook his head. He was spending way too much time trying to read the Sangheili's expressions. They looked up at the long series of pipes and wires that connected the three cores to the Spearhead's mainframe, and the walkways that made the components accessible. The two watched the two Lekgolo that hover around the central reactor; one backed off and grunted something, and then the other backed off a bit as well. A blue line flashed through the reactor.

The Lekgolo gave a series of grunts and growls, and then returned to their repairs. The human and Sangheili watched them for a little while more as their ship slowly closed the distance between them and the Halo.

I+-+-+I

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Unknown Halo planetary system, 19th February 2553_

Cortana continued the node experiments as the clock steadily ticked down. Three minutes until the 2 inoperative reactors could be activated. Or, at least, that was a much as the Lekgolo were promising. She could sense Vala in this system as well, slowly waiting for the countdown to conclude. All of the crew except the Lekgolo were present on the bridge. They were all watching the countdown as it ticked down.

2:00.

Thel snapped his jaws a few times, leaning forward in his chair. John was standing behind him. The Two ONI informants sat on two chairs behind them, and Zhab and Jimaenius were standing at the door of the bridge. On the main viewscreen, the Halo could be seen directly ahead, a dark ring on top of the gas giant that filled most of the display. The Covenant station could be seen near the north side of the ring from here, along with the dark spots of ships hovering around it, giving it the look of a wasp's nest or beehive.

1:15.

Cortana gave a brief probe of the cameras on the engineering quarter. The Lekgolo were tapping away at the main consoles, redirecting several conduits of coolant around the reactors. The reactors were in the final stage of shakedown. Cortana probed the intact weapons systems and tested their firing range. The tests came up green. Cortana ran the binaries through a simed ignition. Tests green.

0:32.

Cortana gave another scan of the covenant forces around the Halo. All were grouped around the station, still holding the same patterns. They hadn't tried landing on the ring yet. Why? Why were they almost… afraid of the ring? It was a question Cortana could come up with several answers to. Religious reverence? Fear of the flood? Warned by the monitor? Or… had they already tried, but that attempt had come to disaster?

0:00.

"Engaging reactors." Vala announced.

Cortana snapped back to the objective. Power flowed through the Spearhead.

"Reactor One and three at one hundred percent, reactor two at thirty percent standard capacity; All available power standing by." Cortana announced.

Thel snapped his jaws once and leaned forward in his chair.

"Bring shields online, Full power to stealth, power the SMAC and warm up the binaries." He ordered.

"We cannot power all of these systems fully under current power." Cortana replied.

"80 percent shields, rest to engines and SMAC, hold stealth." Thel replied.

"Aye." Cortana transferred power.

There was a rumble as the main engines came online. Around them, the light blue particles came into existence and wrapped around the ship in an oval form. Cortana checked the power regulators, which were at 73% full capacity. Cortana set their course for the halo.

"Full speed to the halo set, arrival in 2.5 hours." Cortana replied.

"Good." John replied.

He had moved to beside the main holotable in the bridge. The holograph being showed was the halo and the covenant fleet. The Spearhead's approach was highlighted as an orange line that came in and landed on the southern side of the halo, as far away from the covenant fleet.

They'd had several days to scan the Halo, so Cortana had identified several important places, such as the control room and the library. Cortana also had reason to suspect that there was a minor flood infection on the 125th degree on the halo. It seemed darker than the grassland it was situated upon. It could simply be a trick of the light, as all Cortana could use to scan the halo was the spectrometer. All the same, Cortana hadn't mentioned as a result.

The bridge remained quiet over the next two hours as they approached the Halo. Cortana could almost sense the tension. A single creak could be the beginning of their ship falling apart from the engine thrust. Everyone sat around the bridge, not saying anything. When the Unggoy started a game of Tag aroundthe room, they were silenced by a growl from the other members on the bridge, excluding Zhab, who burst out laughing. The Spearhead was twenty five thousand kilometers away from the halo.

"We're ready to begin approach maneuvers." Vala announced.

"Go."

Cortana engaged the triteries and begin to bring the ship around in a large arc. The atmosphere burned against the shields as they came in; Cortana had to shift power to the underside thrusters to show their fall into the atmosphere to keep them cool, thus preventing the covenant ships from noticing them. Even though there was ten thousand kilometers between them and the covenant fleet, given pinpoint slipspace jumping, that could be three meters away. All it would take would be one signal escaping from one inch of unshielded hull plating for the covenant to be all over them.

As they reached ten kilometers over the surface, the control room loomed below them. This one was located in the side of a single desert mountain. Cortana slowed the ship into a slow hover over the mountain. The first thing that they would do was secure the control room to prevent the covenant from activating the ring and causing a galactic genocide. The library was, however to close the covenant to risk taking the Spearhead itself there, so they'd take a dropship there and secure the index that way.

At least, that was the plan. Which had no backup in the even that something went wrong. Like if, say for instance, they received a message from an unknown sender directed at them, of which whose sender happened to be the monitor of the installation?

"Greetings, I am 16807 Resigned Barrier, monitor of installation 06. And I would like to know what exactly you are doing above the library of my installation."

The crew jerked from their seats in surprise. Cortana was surprised about receiving the message as well. How did the message immediately get played on the speakers? It had immediately played as soon as it was received, which Cortana usually had control over.

"Hello, Monitor." Cortana sent back to the origin of the message.

"Greetings, Construct." Was the response.

"Cortana, locate the origin of the message." John said.

"I've already located it." Cortana replied.

"Tell him that we mean to explore this ring. Give him no indication that we are aware of the other rings." Sarah ordered.

"Your ship appears to have suffered damage along your outer hull. Your hull configuration does not match the "Covenant" ship's configuration. Also, as your topside hull appears to have housing for what would appear to be a communication dish. I would guess that you are searching for a way of communication, which defies protocol." The monitor's voice grew harsher. "That cannot be allowed."

I+-+-+I

 **Dun dun daa! Well, it's been a while. I'm sorry that this took so long, and thank you guys for all the kind words you gave while I was writing this or busy with other things. I'm sorry that this isn't as long as I wanted to be, but anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter out quicker. Anyway… yeah. R &R and so on.**


	14. Chapter 13: Containment

**So, Yeah. Thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter. I was still wondering if there was anyone reading this story in the first place.**

 **And one other thing:**

 **-Pointer39: In the Halo CEA terminals, Spark mentions that he is blocking the distress calls from the crashed ship, as protocol states that the location of any Halo ring cannot, according to protocol, be transmitted. It would be safe to assume that this would apply to fleets of unknown ships hovering above the Halo aswell. I mean, High charity didn't arrive or evidently know of Halo 04's location until AFTER it was destroyed, and Halo 05 was not under the monitor's control, so he couldn't block communications, So there may very well be a no-communication protocol in place, and we all know how protocol obsessed the monitors are.**

Chapter 13: Containment

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Above the Control Room of installation 06, 19th February 2553_

"And so, I will continue to generate both a communications and slipspace barrier around this Halo, as per protocol. How you even arrived here is… beyond my comprehension. I will be monitoring your ship from now on. Please, do not attempt to land on the Halo, or I will add you to the local sentinels firing ledger and ship targeting. You intrigue me greatly." The monitor muttered, and signed off.

"Well…" Cortana muttered. "This isn't good."

"No..." John muttered. "Damn these monitors and their compliance with protocol."

"We'll need to get a Covenant ship in order to gain access to a long range Communication Array." Thel muttered. "And then, There's the range of that jammer."

Thel scratched his lower jaws.

"Any idea on that, Cortana?" He asked, leaned on the right armrest of his chair.

"No. I can't run an active scan without attracting the attention of the Covenant." Cortana replied.

Sarah growled. "We're stuck. Again."

Thel turned and looked across the bridge. "Anyone else got any ideas?" He sighed.

A low murmur filled the room. No one spoke up. Thel swore under his breath. Then Cortana spoke up.

"I may have an idea. It's… risky and very dangerous, but It may be able to convince the monitor to give us a pass, or at least help us get to a friendly system." Cortana said.

"What's your plan then, Cortana? It's not like we have any other options." Thel said, tilted his head in curiousity.

She appeared on the holotable and brought up several holograms. She presented a hologram of the Halo.

"When scanning the Halo, I noticed this slightly discoloured patch of the surface of the Halo, right…" She cut away most of the ring, displaying a small portion, which she grew to a larger size, and then applied colours to the initially blue hologram. "…here."

She was pointing a greyish-green blob located on the ring. It was small, but definitely noticeable.

"I believe that this may be a containment failure. A Flood outbreak." She explained, which drew a few shudders from the group and even a gasp.

Thel felt his stomach twist slightly at the thought of another Flood outbreak, and his mandibles stiffened. He glanced over at John, whose face was mostly still impassive, but slightly paler than usual.

"If we offer the monitor help in containment, then we may be able to convince him to turn a blind eye on protocol in return." Cortana concluded. "Any objections?"

John immediately spoke up. "How on Earth are we supposed to do that? That's a fully routed infection, and we barely survived getting in or out by ourselves. How are we going to destroy the infection without more firepower. The Spearhead's impressive, but if the monitor could barely contain this outbreak, what difference are we going to make?"

"We could do more good than harm." Cortana countered. "With the Covenant here, there's a huge possibility that one spore could get onto a ship, and that would be all that it would take in order for another infestation to take place. I know, from the Halo's files, the monitors know almost nothing about fighting the Flood directly, and only contain info on handling an outbreak and containing it. But, the halos contain environmental replicators that keep the balance of fauna and flora on the rings in check. The point that is infected is centered on one of these points. This would result in an "endless" infestation, as the Flood would keep regenerating biomass. The monitor doesn't know how to attack the Flood. We, on the other hand, have experience in penetrating Flood positions and causing damage. If we could disable the environmental replicator, than that would cut off the Flood's source of Biomass, thereby allowing the monitor's containment protocols to actually become effective."

"All due respect, Cortana, but it was luck that got us in and out of Flood situations before, not tactical knowledge and expertise." John replied.

"Then we'll just have to borrow some of your luck, then." Cortana smiled, before mentioning, "It's all we've got."

Thel gave a sigh of resignation and sat heavily in his chair. "Indeed it is, Cortana." He grumbled. "Indeed it is… Send the monitor our proposal."

I+-+-+I

 _Chieftain's Quarters, Unknown MRS Class stealth cruiser, 19th February 2553_

Kursnow sat on what he called his meditation table and thought of his woes. He had many enemies, and they all conspired against him. Time, that sangheili and brute who had beaten… Escaped from him and defied him. He had a rule… No-one who escaped him could run from him forever, and so long as he lived, then he would always persue them. His tripe couldn't know his true reasons, his true vendetta… And neither could the Remnant know either. They were a means to an end, a way to complete his… his rules, his ethics.

Time was his enemy. Every second his crew took to finish the repairs, the further and more prepared they would become. He closed his eyes further. Thinking deep as a prophet had once taught him, He clenched his hands into fists.

Patience. Patience.

I+-+-+I

 _Containment Frontier, Halo Installation 06, 19th February 2553_

The monitor had eventually agreed to the arrangement, him even offering to teleport a single CCS Class battlecruiser to an obscure location around the ring, allowing them to destroy the ship and take the ship's COM system. However, Cortana had found out that there was a COM station within the Flood containment area, which they could use to send a message to the UNSC. Cortana even had the message ready before the monitor teleported them to the frontier.

John, in his MJOLNIR armor and Thel in his Ranger-like armor, hit the ground as the Halo's teleporter dumped them nearby a mountain pass where several different sentinels were holding back the Flood. This time, John landed on his feet, unlike the last time he used a Halo's teleporter.

"Cortana?" He asked.

Cortana had decided to accompany them in this trip instead of Vala, purely because she had experience with the Flood, and the monitor was only allowing people who had experience dealing with the infection to be present in the offensive.

"I'm receiving a geo map from the monitor: Stand by." She replied.

Thel shook his head and drew his Carbine. He grunted and surveyed the area as well to get his bearings. John drew his assault rifle as well.

"I've got the topographic maps of several areas of the ring that are under infection. I'm going to encrypt a few copies of these to give to ONI when we get back, In case the monitor wants them back when we're done." Cortana muttered, and then she overlayyed a map onto his HUD. He assumed that Cortana did the same to Thel's HUD aswell.

"I'm receiving a message from the monitor." Cortana announced.

"What does he have to say?" John asked.

"Playing message." Cortana replied.

"Reclaimer, I have allocated (one hundred and twenty three) sentinels to your offensive. To you have any plans?" Barrier asked.

John mused over that for a second.]

"Any ideas, Cortana?" John asked.

"I would have about twenty enforcer sentinels follow us and provide fire support for us, and have the rest attack… Here." She highlighted an area on the map.

"That will be a distraction for the majority of the flood forces, and we'll go in using that distraction." Cortana replied.

Thel and John exchanged a glance. Thel nodded.

"Do it." John told Cortana.

"Aye. The sentinels are moving to position. Time to go." Cortana replied.

Immediately, in the distance, several sentinel beams were heard in the distance. A group of enforcers flew over a nearby hill and stopped in a hovering position nearby the two. John and Thel turned toward the open pass in the mountains, and began the trek into flood territory.

There was no traces of infection along the mountain slopes as they passed in frontier and began to move into Flood territory. John could hear booms and rattles from the explosions from the battle in the distance. John began to increase his pace. From what he remembered from the first few Halos and the Ark, the Flood would quickly overpower the sentinels.

Thel noticed this and increased his pace slightly to keep up with the Spartan.

"It's quiet." John muttered after several minutes of silence trudging through the snow.

"I know." Thel replied. "It is interesting that there are no major flood signs around here and yet this is considered inside their territory."

"Perhaps there's a boundary between their territory and the monitor's defences?" Cortana asked.

"There is no boundry, Construct." The monitor replied. "The flood should have a sizable presence nearby your location…"

John bit his lip and scanned the mountain ranges again. No Flood to be seen. John tightened his grip slightly on his assault rifle. The motion tracker also read no hostiles. After another minute's walking, however, the party stumbled across the mangled remains of a single standard sentinel.

"Well, At least we know that we are inside Flood territory." Thel muttered.

John checked the beam weapon to see if there was any charge left in it. None. John threw it back in the pile of debris with a sigh.

"Hold on…" Cortana suddenly muttered.

"What is it?" John asked.

"Something appeared on the edge of our radar. Something hostile, too."

John and Thel both raised their weapons.

"Direction?" Thel asked.

"It seems to be coming from behind us… Exactly from the way we came…" Cortana replied.

The two turned behind and examined their path. A patch of black could be seen across the horizon of the mountain range. John activated his helmet optics. It only zoomed in about 3 times. It didn't enhance the black patch enough to identify.

"It's probably the parasite." Thel snarled.

John nodded slightly.

"How fast are they coming, Cortana?" He asked.

"I can't say." Cortana said. "The helmet's optics and sensors can't give an accurate reading of their speed."

Suddenly, several hostile appeared on their motion trackers, coming from the mountains around them. It was the Flood. John and Thel turned to the face the huge hoards pouring from the two mountains.

"Ambush!" Cortana shouted.

Thel snorted slightly. "Really…" He muttered.

John opened fire on the group of infection forms swarming down from his left. Three shots hit home, blowing apart the group, leaving three combat forms. The combat forms were made up of what seemed to be simple farm-yard animals, Not really forms that were meant to fight. They seemed to simply be the only things available.

Behind John, Thel opened fire, blasting apart the infection forms coming from his side. John fired a couple of assault rifle rounds into the combat forms, destroying the infection froms residing inside them. John turned and glanced up at the enforcers floating above them. They remained impassive.

"Cortana, can you tell those sentinels to do something?" John asked.

"Sure thing."

The enforcers turned and suddenly opened fire on the rear Flood army, using several of what seemed like mini-rocket launchers.

More infection and combat forms burst from several holes in the mountains around them. John opened fire again, beginning to back up. Another cluster of small infection forms exploded.

"We need to get out of here." Thel suddenly snarled. "Check the 50 meter tracker range."

John extended the range, revealing that the huge army of Flood forms advanceing from behind them were almost upon them. He glanced to the side to confirm that. How had they gotten so close, even though under heavy fire from the enforcers.

"Damn it!" John swore. "Cortana, Get those enforcers to retreat with us."

"On it." Cortana replied.

John gestured to Thel to go. The sangheili nodded and broke into a run. As John turned back to the advancing Flood to take a couple of shots at them. He fired four times, then suddenly he heard several cracks from the Flood. A pair of plasma shots flew by the Spartan.

"How the hell… They have weapons!" John growled, taking a pair of shots at the general mass of Flood.

The Sangheili fired several shots, taking down a combat form that had jumped at John as he turned to sprint. Another series of green plasma bolts whizzed by him. He heard an explosion from above him, and a burning enforcer fell from the sky.

"Cortana, place a waypoint on the COM station or the replicator!" John shouted.

A waypoint appeared 1.62 km appeared. The two increased their pace to a fast sprint. A few enforcers followed, but the majority had been cut off by the sheer volume of Flood forms that had surrounded them. After a minute of sprinting, the mountains surrounding them fell away, only to reveal that the snowy valley ended at a huge plain that was lay a kilometer of so below the end of the valley.

John took in the Valley. The surface was covered in Flood biomass. In the distance, two large silhouettes could be seen. A large building could be seen in the distance. Another large object stuck up from the ground. Trails of smoke rose up from the object

"That looks like a covenant battlecruiser…" Thel panted.

"That… does actually explains why they have weapons." John muttered.

"Uh, Chief, Arbiter… Behind you…" Cortana whispered.

The Master Chief turned. The Flood had surrounded them. He glanced at Thel. He sighed and turned back to the cliff behind the pair. The Flood remained still, not advancing on the two. John quickly drew his assault rifle. The Flood forms did not advance.

 _I… I am… intrigued by your presence. A human. A sangheili._

The Master Chief was an experienced soldier, and had faced enemies that most humans would go insane facing, and yet he jerked at the sound he heard. A Gravemind. Thel took a step back from the Flood army.

 _But It matters not. I am young… Younger than even my predecessor But I will not make the mistakes of my brethren. I will use what I can to bring about the goal. All shall be… Consumed._

The flood infection forms swarmed forward in a huge mass. John fired, and several popcorn-like flood forms exploded. But that did not seem to faze the huge swarm. As John hacked another magazine into his Rifle and fired again. More explosions of infection forms. Thel was firing with a pair of plasma rifles.

"It's hopeless." He muttered over the COM.

"We have no way out." Cortana answered. "I can't get in contact with the monitor."

The Flood combat forms opened fire on the enforcers hovering above the two. John glanced up, and several enforcers rumbled and exploded, falling from the sky above them. He realized a second too late that an enforcer was about to land right on top of him. He twisted out of the way, but it slammed into the ground beside him, blowing his shields and throwing him off the cliff.

"Cortana!" He yelled.

He heard her reply something, and then he slammed into the ground and blacked out.

I+-+-+I

 **Argh. This chapter turned out way longer than I wanted it to be. I wanted to be further along the story at this point, but my time in writing was rather limited, and I wanted to have a chapter done by the end of this week. And, Well, I don't kinda like how this turned out. Ever plan something, feel it's good, and then feel like it turned out horribly after you write it? Pah… anyway, R &R**


	15. Chapter 14: The Setting of the Stage

**Wow guys… Four reviews. Is that what adding the flood does to semi-decent Fanfictions? Fine by me. Anyway, Thanks guys for all the reviews. I'm surprised that the chapter was a well-liked as it was. I thought it was one of the worst I wrote for this FF. But, ah well, You are your own biggest critic.**

Chapter 14: The Setting of the Stage

 _Flood controlled sector; Nearby long range COM array, February 19th 2553._

Thel opened his eyes and examined his position. He had, too, been knocked from the cliff when the first enforcer had exploded. Now, he was lying atop a hill of Flood biomass. He quickly checked to see if he still had his weapons. His carbine and both of his plasma rifles were still there. However, he'd lost both of the plasma grenades he'd brought along.

He rolled off his back and rose to a knee, examining the area for any signs of Flood. Nothing, just the barrens plains of Biomass. His mission timer informed him that he'd been out for one hour and twenty six minutes.

He shook his head and drew his carbine, inspecting it for damage. It had some minor denting across the rear end of it, but it was still operable. However, he only had three magazines left for the weapon. That gave him just under fifty shots. Both of his plasma rifles were at seventy-seven percent charge.

He stood up and searched the area for any sign of his companions. Nothing, but they could be camouflaged in the biomass if they'd been rolled in it once. He examined his armor, which was covered in the stuff, which had turned from white to a series of Flood-like colours, such as peach, red and green in patches. After several minutes observational searching failed to reveal anything, he activated his COMs reluctantly. Any Flood that had the remains of any COM systems would be able to pick up this message. Oddly, they were blocked from transmitting anything more than two hundred and fifty meters. A jammer must have been at play.

"Hello?" He asked, then added reluctantly, "Anyone?"

Static.

And then... "Arbiter?" It was Cortana.

Thel quickly closed the connection to a two-way channel in order to keep the flood from snooping.

"I'm here." He replied, scanning the area for any sign of her and her Spartan carrier.

"I can see you at about 74 meters away on the motion tracker; John's out cold over here." She sighed.

"Place a waypoint on yourselves and I'll come right over." He said, checking his motion tracker for any sign of them.

"Done." Cortana said. A single arrow appeared a small distance away.

"On my way." Thel grumbled, trekking over the Biomass that made up the ground of the area.

It wasn't a long walk; It took Thel about half a minute. As Cortana had said, The Spartan was lying unconscious, buried slightly in the Biomass. His armor, too, was covered in the stuff.

"Shall I wake him up?" Cortana asked.

"How?" Thel asked suspiciously.

"With a pump of adrenaline, Or alternatively, I could use te shields to shock him into consciousness."

Thel snorted slightly. "Use the adrenaline, please."

"Very well." Cortana replied.

Thel turned away and shook his head. On the few missions and simulations that they had been on, They'd had Vala as the AI for The Squad. Generally, she was very literal with what she said; She had never joked, as far as he could remember.

While he had talked to Cortana at length in the bridge, He hadn't expected to ever have her in a field scenario. He definitely hadn't anticipated her "Colourfull" behaviour.

"How long until he's up?" Thel asked.

"A few more seconds." Cortana answered.

Thel scanned the horizon around them again. The cliff face took up a large amount of that horizon, but then, over the mostly flat Biomass plain, There were two buildings, which both looked Forerunner in design, and the bottom of a downed covenant battlecruiser, the hull slightly altered by biomass as well.

Thel heard the biomass squelch behind him. He turned back to see John pulling himself out of the hole he'd made when he'd fallen. Thel offered his hand to help the Spartan up, which he accepted. He pulled the Spartan to his feet.

John growled slightly, shaking his head. Thel tilted his head enquiringly. John shook his head.

"Just the adrenaline. He'll be fine in a second." Cortana replied.

John straightened and checked his weapons.

"What's our plan?" He asked.

"The closest building to us is a Forerunner long range communication array. It's our best chance to communicate with ONI, or at the very worst, any GA planet. It's also transmitting a COM jammer, which is why we can't contact the Spearhead." Cortana stated. "We need to get there. With your suit's limited sensors, the building does not seem to be heavily covered in Biomass."

Thel glanced at John. The human gave him a brief nod.

"Let's get going, then." John muttered, and the group set off.

UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Over Halo 06's control room, February 19th, 2553.

While the newcomers were technically in charge, The Shipmaster had left the AI in charge of ship running, so technically she was in charge.

They'd lost contact with the two about two hours ago, and tensions in the bridge were mounting, and the monitor was not improving matters.

"I insist that I am doing my utmost to restablish COM links with your crew. However, protocol states tha-"

The human cut of the monitor's speech with a growl.

"Protocol this, Protocol that, stupid things. Why the Forerunners would build such stupid machine to manage their weapons of mass destruction is beyond me." The female Kig-yar muttered.

The human muttered an affirmative.

"Why do we not simply take our ship into the Flood territory and blow them to hell?" Jimaenius asked. "Surely we've got the firepower!"

"We may very well have it, but the Flood may have Forerunner EMP weapons, which would knock us clean out of the sky to be infected by the flood." The Sangheili AI countered.

Jimaenius settled back into his seat, mumbling something. Zhab did not like being useless. Sitting here, waiting for something to happen annoyed the Jackal greatly. He glanced over at a console on the bridge and watched the graphs for power distribution for several minutes.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Flood controlled sector; Nearby long range COM array, February 19th 2553._

John and Thel got to about three hundred meters from the the COM array without being noticed or even seeing any Flood forms. However, John appeared to have exhausted his reservoir of luck, and now they were faced with the problem of several Flood forms that wandered in and around the bottom of the array.

The array was about three stories tall and had a significant amount of the bottom floor covered over by Biomass, but the other two floors were pretty much unharmed.

At the moment, John and Thel were hiding behind a slight hill of biomass, scouting the building.

"Any ideas?" John asked, sounding resigned.

John himself could only think of one way to get it. Charge down shooting. He was pretty sure that was what Thel was also thinking.

"Besides running and gunning? Nope." Cortana replied.

"I suppose that I could use by camo system and sneak inside." Thel offered.

"I still have to be there to send the message." Cortana replied.

"I could carry your chip." Thel offered.

"You could, but I imagine that there may not be a compatible point to plug me in. I could try a remote transfer, but that's dicey because there's flood in the network. The Gravemind could probably overpower me if he found me without a chip." Cortana sighed.

There was a few minutes of silence. Then they heard a growl. John and Thel drew weapon and quickly scanned the nearby area. At the foot of the hill they were bidding behind, one combat form had noticed the two crouching.

It was a brute combat form, having clearly come from the covenant battlecruiser. John drew a magnum pistol and fired two shots. There were two sharp cracks, and the combat form fell.

John lowered the pistol and glanced back over the hill. Every single flood form had turned towards the hill and were advancing up the slope. To his right, Thel muttered something in sangheili.

"Well, looks like option one." The Spartan said, switching his pistol for his Assault Rifle.

He opened fire at the closet combat form, and the bullet spread impacted a single infection form, blasting apart a pack of infection forms, stunning the combat form.

John paused, and released a small burst, taking down the initial form.

To his left, Thel starting running down the slope, firing both of his plasma rifles, taking down several combat forms with well placed shots. John sighed and charged forward too.

John quickly caught up with Thel at around halfway down the slope. The two fired small bursts, clearing their path to the forerunner COM array. It took the two about ten seconds to reach the side of the tower, or, at least, the biomass that made up the side of the tower.

Pulling himself up, he rolled onto the second floor of the COM tower and raised his magnums, having exhausted almost all of his assault rifle ammo.

Thel pulled himself in behind him. John surveyed the room, in particular noting the lack of biomass, and that the lights were still working up here.

"Cortana, where do we need to go from here?" He asked quietly.

"Accessing schematics, one second... Head down this corridor and turn right. You'll see the doorway to the control room from there."

John followed her instructions, slowly advancing down the corridor, with Thel covering him from behind. The only sound coming from the building were their footsteps on the metallic surface. Outside, however, they could hear an army of moaning, growling flood forms trying to gain access to the COM tower.

John reached the junction. Carefully checking the other two hallways for hostiles, he quickly spun into the corridor on his right. A quick scan revealed it to be empty. John exhaled, then gestured to the Sangheili to follow him.

To the right of the corridor, there was a doorway, which opened into a large control center. With a quick gesture for Thel to cover him, he stepped up to the central console at Cortana's request.

"Place your hand on the central pulsing light." She ordered.

The Chief complied. When he did so, several holographs burst from the console, forming the standard Forerunner console layout.

"I'm not willing to risk an interface yet. If that Gravemind is in the system, I want to keep him as clueless to my presence as possible." Cortana explained.

"Ok." John muttered. "What next?"

"Do you see that red pulsing light on the left?" Cortana asked.

He nodded.

"Good. Place your hand on it, please."

The Spartan complied. As he did so, several new holographs burst from the red light, replacing the symbols already there.

"Okay... Got it. This tower is sending a jamming signal at a range of A through Y bands... Interesting that the Z band is left open, although that doesn't help us much; We can't access the I bands anyway." Cortana murmured.

"How to we stop it?" Thel asked from across the room, evidently able to hear them, either via COMs or by his ears.

"Hit that green pulsing button at the middle right."

The Spartan complied. He moved his hand over the pulsing light. There was a beep, and then the holographs faded.

"Jammer has been disabled."

Thel grunted from behind them. John exhaled loudly and relaxed. John's HUD flashed, then began broadcasting to the Spearhead, from which it received a confirmation response in less than five seconds.

"Okay, now for contacting ONI?" He asked.

"Very well. Chief, please type the code displayed onto the lime panel on the top left. It's a standard alphanumeric layout. 1 to 0 up top, Qwerty on bottom."

John paused a second to wonder why the Forerunners had a qwerty keyboard, then typed in the sequence that Cortana had given him.

He quickly concluded and tapped the send button, or at least, what Cortana told him was the send button. A bar flashed up and filled immediately.

"Message sent to cluster A-42 to O-1." Cortana informed him.

"What exactly did you send?" Thel asked from behind them.

"Installation number, Emergency breakthrough number, and coordinates." Cortana replied.

Suddenly, the monitor sent a message straight onto their network.

"RECLAIMER! YOU HAVE VIOLATED PROTOCOL-" Barrier roared, until Cortana squelched the channel.

"Well, He's pissed."

Thel snorted from behind them.

"Now, haha... Let's get to the replicator itself and shut it down." He announced.

John turned back and nodded.

"Let's go."

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Cairo Orbital defence Platform, Earth, February 19th, 2553._

Admiral Terrence Hood had found the last three months extremely boring. With no covenant to fight, All there was to do was sit on board the station and hope that some pirates or Innies would pop up and think it was worth trying to take Earth.

Hood had requested to take part in the Kig-yar civil war, but Admiral Harper had been assigned to that. And then ONI had snapped up Admiral Walker. Now the most interesting things to do was watch the rebuilding progress of the Athens and Malta. They were being rebuilt with some Covenant upgrades. Instead of depleted uranium rounds, they would shoot plasma balls, which would detonate and spread upon impact.

"Sir, we're picking up a message from Admiral Parangosky. She wants to speak with you in private." Announced the COM manager.

"Patch it through to my quarters' COM station." He replied, and rose from his chair.

"Aye, sir."

Hood walked out of the central bridge of the ODP and down the personnel corridor and turned into his personal quarters. He opened the door and walked in. The door closed behind him. He sat at the desk in front of the bed and picked up his tablet.

Parangosky was calling. He swiped to answer.

"Hello, Margaret." He greeted.

Her faced resolved into view.

"Terrence." She responded.

"What did you want to talk about?" Hood asked, all business now.

"We've received a message from one of our squads out in deep space. They've found a Halo." She informed him.

Hood extended the stand at the back of his tablet and placed it on te desk. He clasped his hands together and lowered his head onto them.

"Good Lord, Margaret. Another one?" He sighed.

"Yes." She replied, sounding regretful.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"What makes you think 'We'?"

Hood chuckled. "I think that, seeing as we're talking here about the Halo, I imagine that you need me in some way. It's not like you just call me up to tell me about some event that I probably would eventually hear about."

Parangosky sighed.

"It's one of Admiral Walker's squads, and he's persuaded me to take out the _Infinity_."

Hood grinned slightly. There it was. Margaret's true intentions. When Hood had discovered the Infinity being built in the Oort Cloud of Sol, Him and Margaret had come to an agreement, which stated that both of them had to greenlight taking the _Infinity_ out of port. She was pretty much finished, and the GA as a whole knew nothing of her.

"Very well, Margaret. I'll give you a yes on my end. But I'd like to come along with the _Infinity_ to ensure that that's why you REALLY want to take out."

"You couldn't just let me have a joyride, could you Terrence?"

Hood shook his head. Margaret sighed in defeat.

"Very well, I'll send a few pelicans to pick you up. They'll arrive in 20 minutes. I'll transfer any reserves to the _Infinity_ 's fleet. Based on what we heard, we going to need everything we can spare."

The primary GA offence fleet was in Eayn orbit, landing forces to deal with the Kig-yar civil war, and convening a meeting of the GA council would take far too long. The notion to send a fleet would be passed, definitely, but it would take a week to a month to do so.

 _Infinity_ with her new, Forerunner slipspace drives, was the fastest ship in the GA, and generated a slipspace rupture so large, other ships could follow her Along through the rupture, keeping pace with her high speeds.

"Very well, Margaret, I will see you on the _Infinity_. Good luck to us all."

He closed the call.

 **I+-+-+I**

Flood Controlled Sector, Halo 06, 19th of February, 2553

"100 meters to Environmental replicator." Cortana announced over the Com.

Thel shouldered through an infection form and discharged his last Carbine round into it. He ducked to the side, avoiding three shots from a ranged form in the distance. He took cover behind a piece of rubble from the Covenant battlecruiser in the distance. John slid into position beside him.

"Almost there." Thel muttered. "But I'm out on everything except energy sword charge."

"I'm out except for a last assault rifle round." The Spartan replied.

There had been very little pickings for weapons on the way to the replicator. Thel ignited his energy sword and scanned behind the barricade. Across the plains, dozens of Flood Combat forms slowly advanced on them.

"We haven't got much longer." Cortana whispered.

John and Thel glanced at each other and nodded. There was one last break they had to do, and then they were home free to the replicator. John had saved two frag grenades for the replicator.

"You go first, take out the ranged form, and then we go." Thel suggested.

John nodded and drew his rifle. Thel twisted to his right and searched for the ranged form.

"Centre, unmoving." Thel reported.

John grunted, then twisted and rose, Firing several short bursts into the ranged form. It fell backwards, curling up into a ball. Thel sprang to his feet and started running towards a gap in the environmental replicator. He heard a sqwelch as John lept over the barricade and sprinted behind him. In the distance, he saw the ranged form suddenly curl and expand.

Changing.

A huge, hulking tank form rose from the remains of the ranged form. It moved with more speed than it should have been capable to be able to, and slammed into the path in front of them. It raised its huge arm, preparing to slam it in the way of the two. Thel twisted to the right and slashed his energy sword straight through the tank's arm. It roared in pain, and Thel withdrew and slammed his sword straight into the tank's head.

With a roar, the tank collapsed. John leapt over the tank's body and slid into the hole to the environmental replicator. Thel quickly followed. The two slid into a dark corridor. The hole slid closed behind them. There was silence. Thel shook his head and rose from the pile of biomass he was lying on.

"Everyone alright?" Cortana asked.

John and Thel both flashed a affirmative light.

"Where are we?" John asked.

"It looks like we're in a passage inside the replicator." Cortana replied.

 _You came._

Thel reignited his energy sword. It's hum filled the building.

 _I respect that. You journey into the jaws of what should be death, and yet, you survive._

The two slowly advanced down the corridor, with the way lit by two torches.

 _You beat us before._

The two reached a doorway which led into a dark chamber.

 _How?_

"On the right." Cortana whispered.

Thel turned to the right and spotted a huge tunnel, which had thousands of doors along the cylinders. The tunnel was untainted by biomass.

"What now?" Thel asked quietly.

"Throw a grenade into there." Cortana said.

John primed a grenade and threw. Suddenly, something smacked the grenade and it fell into a pit on the other side of the chamber.

"What… was that…" Cortana whispered, her voice dying as the sound of something huge moving filled the chamber.

You have not answered my question.

Both John and Thel turned around and raised their torches. The light fell upon a huge spire of biomass. And above that…

No matter.

The new Gravemind lowered himself into view and laughed.

Welcome home, my treasured instruments!

Both John and Thel swore.

 **I+-+-+I**

LOG_76491_MONITOR_RESIGNED_BARRIER

BROKEN_PROMISES

TheSe ReCLAimErs HavE BrOKen ThEIr wORd

BRoKeN.

I ShOUlD NoT hAvE TRuStEd tHEM

thE FOrunNeRS WeRE rIGht ToO nOT TrUSt ThEm

ThEY WiLl pAY

THEy WiLL PaY

THEY WILL PAY

ERROR: LOG ENTRY TERMINATED BY 16807 RESIGNED BARRIER

WILL RETRY IN 10 SECONDS.

WILL RETRY IN 5 SECONDS.

RETRYING…

ERROR: MONITOR STATE QUESTIONABLE; BEGINNING TESTS

WARNING: RAMPANCY POSSBILE

WARNING: DETECTING RAMPANCY; BEGINNING FAILSAFES…

10% STARTUP SEQUENCE, 5% PER SECO-

ERROR: CONNECTION TERMINATED.

WARNING: MONITOR 16807 CONFIRMED RAMPANT

WARNING: MONITOR 16807 HAS DISABLED FAILSAFES

SYSTEM TERNIATED

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Well, a much better chapter in my opinion. But anyway. The stage is set for the next chapter, and I'm looking forward to it.**

 **So anyway, R &R guys. Plz…**


	16. Chapter 15:Battle of Installation 06 pt1

**So, Guys, It's been a while, but I finally wrote a chapter so long that the best thing to do was to divide it in two halves. Of course, I only realized this when I had written 5000 words, so I figured that splitting it up would be easier than having one big 8000 or so word chapter. All the same, that doesn't been you're going to get both parts at once; The next part won't be finished for a week or two as usual. So… yeah…**

Chapter 15: The Battle for Installation 06, Part 1

 _Environmental Replicator, Halo 06, February 20_ _th_ _, 2553_

Cortana had only felt fear once or twice in her lifetime, but looking up at the Gravemind above them only brought that back. Both John and Thel stared up at the huge hulking life form above them.

I have seen many lifetimes of bravery in the memories of the flood.

"So you have, parasite." Thel growled.

You readily stumbled into my core, my source of power... Observe.

A tentacle gestured for the two to look at the tunnel behind them. Cortana saw through John's visor as he turned around. The Forerunner replicator suddenly hummed and glowed; a series of arms sprang from it, and in the center of the cylinder, a light blue light flashed.

Your fate was sealed the moment you set foot in here.

Some kind of deer like animal appeared in the center of the chamber. It gave a squeal and turned to run. Immediately, a tentacle from the Gravemind smashed through the creature, and it fell to the ground, motionless. The tentacle was withdrawn from the creature, and biomass expanded from the hole. Within a minute, the animal had become part of the flood biomass.

The Gravemind, this whole time, had seemed almost afraid of them, if not very cautious of them. It couldn't have known what John and Thel did.. But it did. It had confirmed that. It had mentioned the memories of the Flood. Cortana couldn't imagine having access to the lifetimes of millennia.

I am disappointed. I expected more... A plan, a plot, Not just the silence you have presented to me.

John turned back to face the Gravemind.

"What do you want with us, then?" He asked.

The huge form tilted his head in what seemed like confusion. Taking the hint, Thel picked up the conversation.

"The only time where the Gravemind of the Flood has communicated directly to us without trying to kill us outright is when he wants something of us." Thel growled.

But, of course, I do want something of you.

"And what might that be?" Cortana asked through the spartan's helmet speakers.

Your free will.

The group was silent, and then Thel and John glanced at each other in silence.

Become my willing instruments, my greatest tools, my loyal advisors...

"You know, the last Gravemind tried that too, and that didn't end up very well for him." Cortana countered.

The Gravemind paused, and then threw its head back, erupting into deep laughter, which was one of the more disturbing things that Cortana had ever heard. Both Thel's and John's hearts spiked by ten beats per minute each.

And that is true. My weak predecessor failed to plan for every situation. And now, he is gone. But I also say... You have no choice in the matter.

Several gold flashes filled the chamber behind the two. Cortana detected several blips on the Chief's motion tracker and identified them immediately.

"Combat forms!" Cortana warned.

John and Thel turned, drawing weapons. Thel's energy sword ignited and John raised his assault rifle, although it only had twelve rounds left in it.

The Gravemind had teleported in several dozen combat forms behind them, sealing off the exits.

"Why would you not kill us yourself?" Cortana asked.

Another laugh.

Entertainment, my dear.

Great, Cortana thought. Now we're fighting an egotistical Gravemind.

The combat forms advanced in a slow line, managing to form semi-decent lines. John emptied his assault rifle rounds into the nearest line. Two combat forms fell, but a third staggered backwards from the rounds, then returned to marching forward.

"I'm out." John hissed, switching for a combat knife.

Another dozen combat forms teleported in. Cortana had forgotten about the teleporters on the Halo rings.

"Chief!" She shouted over the COM. "I think I can access the Halo's teleporters. Should I pull you two out?"

"Not yet, Cortana." He replied, pulling the last grenade off his hip.

He took aim, pulled the pin and threw in one swift, fluid movement.

The Gravemind roared, but it moved too late, and the fragmentation grenade detonated inside the environmental replicator. The machine seemed to be undamaged at first, but then a high pitched sound came from the machine, and several puffs of fire appeared from several points.

There was silent as the machine smoked, and then a voice issued from it;

"Warning: Replicator Critically damaged, engaging failsafes... Error: Failsafes disabled by monitor."

Cortana couldn't help but wonder why he monitor had disabled the failsafes. Had he done it for every system on the ring?

Her attention was redirected to the replicator as it began to heat up. She knew instinctively that his meant the machine was going to explode.

"The replicator is going to detonate in thirty seconds. Quickly, both of you! Jump off the cliff edge. I'll teleport you out with out before you land." Cortana shouted.

Both of them backed up to the edge of the cliff.

"Can't you just do it now?" Thel asked as he split a combat form in half.

"You'd have to keep your limbs still then, and I don't think self-defence works well when you can't move your limbs." Cortana countered. "I can work against gravity, because that's a constant. I can't predict your limb movements."

John planted a foot on a combat form and sent it sprawling backwards. He turned and looked down the cliff into the dark. The Gravemind roared and dove into the darkness to take cover from the blast.

He sighed, and glanced at Thel. And then the two jumped into darkness.

Cortana immediately dove into the wireless connection of the Halo, tapping into the ring's teleportation grid. She couldn't put the two back on their ship, but she could put them nearthe control room, pretty close by.

An explosion snapped her back to the Chief's helmet briefly, then she locked the receiver grid onto the two, countering for the gravitation pull.

In her view of John's helmet, she saw the Gravemind reaching out towards the two.

Come to me.

"Cortana!" Thel roared.

"Grid connected... 3... 2... 1..." Cortana informed them.

The flood tentacles moved to wrap around the two, who were covered in the golden glow of the teleporters.

And then the teleporter engaged, and the chamber vanished.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Hangar, Somewhere above the Control room of Installation 06, 20_ _th_ _February, 2553_

The Halo had a very odd day-night cycle, which flowed independent of the UNSC military calendar. Now, the sun was setting behind the Gas giant that the station orbited, only to come back up in about 2 hours.

Of course, this information was of little use to the members of the Squad, namely Jimaenius, who had finally, (at least in his opinion,) been given the order to take the other members of the Squad and pick up the Spartan and the Shipmaster.

Jimaenius and Zhab were, at the moment, stocking the phantom they had chosen to use with weapons and ammo. This was the last working vehicle they had hat had not been scrapped for parts to repair the reactors.

Liyik and Limid were running around the hangar like cubs. Jimaenius found them amusing considering the circumstances.

"Vala to away team. Away team, respond." Came the Sangheili AI's voice over the COM.

Zhab set down his crate on the phantom's deck and climbed into the cockpit. Jimaenius climbed on board and set down his box, popped the top open and exposed the contents for easy access. Satisfied, he followed the Kig-yar into the cockpit.

"-position of the two has suddenly changed by 3482 kilometers. They're now very close by to the control room. They're practically right underneath us." The Sangheili AI was concluding.

"What's moved position?" Jimaenius asked.

"They have." Zhab replied, gesturing towards the phantom's viewscreen.

A pinprick of yellow light now flashed below their green light. Jimaenius felt himself grin slightly. Now this would be a quick and easy drop in, drop out operation. Probably no action, but then they'd finally be able to get away from this Halo. The monitors constant threats were getting on Jimaenius' nerves anyway.

"Well, Let's go get our friends." Zhab had a fierce look in his eye.

Jimaenius hesitated at Zhab's choice of words, but quickly hid it.

"Yes. Go get the Unggoy." He replied.

Zhab nodded and jogged out of the cockpit. Jimaenius sat down in the pilot's chair. Friends? He'd never thought that much about the subject, to be honest. Sure, they'd been aquentances, commanders, but... Friends? Jimaenius decided to postpone judgement for now.

One of the only vehicles that the Jiralhanae knew how to fly was the phantom; back with his pack on Diosac, he'd flown a few around times, but never really at speed. Time to see how fast this Phantom could push itself.

"We're all on board." Zhab informed him from behind him.

"Very well." Jimaenius called back. "I'm starting the engines."

Jimaenius reached for the door controls and shut both side doors. He then pulled the ignition lever and started the antigravity generators. He clasped the control stick and slowly started the phantom into a hover. Having rose up about five meters, he then spun the dropship around. Having turned to face the hangar door, he leaned the phantom forward and set the throttle to full.

The ship flew forward, and straight out. The sky were orange, though rapidly darkening as the sun set behind the gas giant the Halo orbited. The Spearhead hung in the air behind them, a dark streak upon the sky.

Jimaenius lit up the HUD and brought the ship around in a circle. A waypoint pointed to a point about 24 kilometers away. Jimaenius pulled the control stick to the left, lined up with the waypoint and pulled back on the throttle. No need to go in too fast.

This phantom was more manoeuvrable than he remembered the ones back home being, so he held the stick more tightly. Of course, that would mean his turning would be more stiff, but that was what he intended.

He heard a noise behind him and turned his head to see Zhab standing behind him, staring out the front viewscreen.

"How long should it take?" Zhab asked. "It's getting dark out."

"About a minute or two." Jimaenius guessed, and reached over to switch the lights on. "Hold on, I'll switch on the lights."

The cockpit and the transport bay were bathed in purple light.

"What do you think of that monitor?" Zhab asked.

Jimaenius tilted his head and thought about it for a moment.

"At the moment he just seems to be all talk, no do." The Jiralhanae answered, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

"But that was when we were on the ship. You know what happened when the human and Sangheili left the ship." Zhab replied.

A long-time communications blockout, then they reappeared in the middle of nowhere, nearly out of ammo and deep in supposed flood territory. But on the other hand...

Jimaenius' impression of the Kig-yar was that he had incredible judgement. While normally he had his confident squash-buckling attitude, when he was nervous of something, it rarely turned out to be wrong.

Jimaenius opened the plasma conduit, warming up the phantom's plasma cannons. The underside turret deployed, and with it, and additional torch.

Ten kilometers now, and Jimaenius began to slow the ship down, twisting to the right to lose some speed upon atmosphere. The phantom vibrated slightly.

"Hard landing?" Zhab asked.

"Doesn't look like it; would've seen some fire by now." The pilot grumbled back.

With the waypoint about a kilometer away, the ground came into view. The sky was now extremely dark, with the only light coming from the gas giant. The grass rustled slightly as the phantom swept on by, about a hundred meters in the air.

About two-hundred and fifty meters off, Jimaenius cut forward thrust and pulled the phantom nose up; slowing the craft and beginning what limited scans the dropship could perform. Nothing hostile moved within a kilometer. Jimaenius finally landed the phantom at the foot of a slight hill. It was very dark now. The Jiralhanae had no intention to wander through the darkness with Unggoy in tow, and yet, if they were left alone, the phantom would probably never survive ten minutes.

Speaking of the Unggoy, there was a bang in the transport bay. Zhab immediately turned away and muttered something under his breath, before storming into the bay. Jimaenius unstrapped himself from the pilot's seat and followed Zhab into the transport bay.

He stepped inside to find several weapons crates thrown around, the goods inside scattered across the floor. Zhab was giving Liyik and Limid both a serious stare, and the two were standing with their arms behind their methane packs, each giving Zhab little puppy eyes.

"What on Eayn is this?" He asked.

Silence. After around a minute, Jimaenius spoke up.

"I've landed about two hundred meters away from the signals. We'll stealth the rest of the way to the top of the hill and observe. If they're there, we'll take them back. If not, we return. Nothing lost, hopefully undetected." He cast his gaze across the room. "Any questions?"

Zhab raised his hand immediately.

"Yes." He pointed to the Grunts. "They don't do stealth. And we know that we can't leave them here alone, so only one of us can go."

"Easy." Jimaenius replied, "You."

Zhab looked surprised for a second, then his face returned to normal.

"Of course." He laughed. "Of course."

Jimaenius picked up a weapon that had been thrown across the room, which turned out to be a plasma pistol. He tossed it to the Kig-yar.

"Best get ready then." He replied, turning to face the left-side door controls.

He pressed the top purple holograph and the left bay door fell open in one swift movement. The cold air rushed in, rustling the Jiralhanae's fur. He hadn't lived he been sweating slightly beforehand.

Zhab picked up his beam rifle and strapped it to his back. He was restively unarmored, but had pulled on a couple of body-defence packs. That should be enough armor to keep a large amount of agility, or so Jimaenius thought.

With a confident salute, Zhab jumped out into the grass and vanished into the darkness of the night.

Jimaenius closed the doors quickly afterwards to prevent the Unggoy getting any ideas. He had no intention to chase a pair of partially insane Grunts across the hills.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Bridge, UNSC_ Infinity, _somewhere in slipspace, February 20_ _th_ _, 2553._

There had been thirty GA ships available within ten light years of Sol to follow _Infinity_ to the newly-discovered Halo. Now they all followed the wake of the newly-commissioned ship.

Hood noted the majority of the crew were human; except for a single Sangheili who had taken the role of navigator. He was being watched closely by two armed guards, though he seemed to be unfazed by this.

Captain Del Rio was sitting on the captain's chair, head leaning on a fist. He was a strange kind of captain; there was no uniqueness or personality to him, just an uptight by-the-book personality.

He hadn't been Hood's first choice for captain of the _Infinity_ ; But he'd been the best, or at least, most experienced captain available for the _Infinity_. Margaret hadn't wanted him to take the ship; She'd probably wanted a more easily manipulated or animate captain, not just a shell of the UNSC rule book.

Hood heard the rear doors of the bridge open.

"Admiral on the bridge!" Someone shouted.

All the crew who weren't engaged in vital ship activities turned and saluted. Hood turned to see who had entered. Of course, It was Margaret herself, hobbling on board with her walking stick; however, still she was as intimidating figure as ever.

"At ease." She muttered, and the crew returned to work.

"Good to see that you could join us, ma'am." Del Rio stated.

"Thank you, Captain." She replied.

"Shall I have a chair gotten for you?" The captain asked.

"I shall be fine." Margaret told him.

Del Rio returned to his chair and began requesting status updates from his crew. Hood turned to Parangosky, who was now staring out the main viewscreen into the endless expanse of slipspace.

"It's been a long time since we last met face-to-face, hasn't it?" He chuckled.

She glanced over and gave a faint smile. That was as close as she ever got to outright emotion in a crowded room.

"Arrival at the Halo in 10 minutes!" Someone shouted.

"Alright, people!" Del Rio announced. "We're goon to arrive in possibly hostile territory. Weapons all up. Broadcast to fleet."

"Message sent." COMs informed them.

Out of the thirty ships accompanying the _Infinity_ , there were seven Paris class heavy frigates, two of which had GA upgrades, such as BOWMEN plasma pods and Covenant Shielding systems. There were two Marathon class cruisers with them, still obsolete. There were also three Stalwart class frigates, all of which were upgraded. There were also four Charon class frigates, three of which were obsolete. With them also, two halberd class destroyers, along with three CPV class destroyers and four SDV class corvettes, finally rounded off by six CCS class battlecruisers. One of those battlecruisers had undergone upgrades.

Hood suddenly remembered that the _Infinity_ also had an on board compliment of ten strident class frigates, completely new UNSC designed frigates, designed to take full advantage of the new technology created at the end of the war. If there were any hostiles waiting for the GA, they'd be in for a great surprise.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Somewhere nearby the control room, Halo installation 06. Febraury 20_ _th_ _, 2553._

Falling from several hundred feet and suddenly landing unharmed was definitely strange. Thel slammed into the grass which they had teleported over, attempting to roll, but ended up simply landing face-first in the dirt.

He lay on the ground for a minute, and then slowly pushed himself up. A few meters away, he saw John doing the exact same thing.

"Where... Are we?" He asked.

"We are about five kilometers from the control room." Cortana replied.

Thel could feel the beginnings of exhaustion creeping in for him, but he shook it off and surveyed the area. They seemed to be standing nearby a forerunner platform, which was located in the middle of some grassy plains, surrounded by some hills.

"The Spearhead was holding position nearby, wasn't she?" John asked.

"Yes. In fact, she is currently nineteen point eight kilometers away right now." Cortana replied.

"Can you contact them?" Thel asked.

"On it... I can't get a message to them, but I can transmit our new location."

"ReclAiMeR..." A voice hissed in the darkness.

A hostile signature suddenly appeared on the motion tracker. A hatch opened on the forerunner platform, and from it rose a monitor. It looked almost like the rampant 343 Guilty Spark.

It was 16807 Resigned Barrier. His central eye glowed a deep red. He hovered rather erratically, quickly switching his focus between the two.

"mY, MY, mY..." He chastised in a voice which constantly changed pitch and tempo. "wHat HaVe we HerE? A reClaImEr aND a SaNghEilI..."

He flew down right up close to John, examining him like a dog sniffing a new person it had met.

"tHe LibRarIaNS ChOseN oNE..." He swooped in front of Thel, tilting himself to the side as he examined the Sangheili. "And wHat HaVE wE HeRe? A sAnGheiLi, yeS, BuT sOmeThIng liv... i sHaLl live tHat yoU aRe kEpT live For sTudY..."

The monitor suddenly backed up until he was hovering about ten meters away, righting himself as he did so. His eye began to glow orange over the red.

Experience from Halo 04B told Thel what was about to happen. He dove to the side, John doing the same. Barrier fired his beam into the spot where John had been. Thel raised his own carbrine and fired, only to realise that it was empty. He growled a Sangheili swear and drew his energy sword.

The monitor dove low and charged again. John drew his combat knife and warded the machine off with a few swings. Barrier pulled back into the air and his eye reached full charge.

Suddenly, a beam of white light slammed into the side of the monitor, sending the forerunner machine slamming through the dirt. The two turned towards the source. A single locational waypoint was plotted upon the hill. It was Zhab, a faint light twinkling from the scope of his beam rifle.

"Impertinence!" Barrier cried, firing his eye beam as he rose from the ground.

Thel lunged to the right, narrowly avoiding the beam.

"Let's go!" John yelled, and Thel broke into a sprint towards the hill Zhab was firing from.

"We're still in a COM jammer range; presumably the monitor. I'm trying to contact Zhab." Cortana said hurriedly.

Thel's shields dropped to half as the monitor scored a lucky shot. He stumbled and rolled several times. He quickly thrust out an arm and was able to catch himself. He quickly rose to a knee, locating the monitor as he charged up again.

Thel swore in Sangheili as he prepared to dodge to the side. Zhab hit the monitor with a beam rifle burst, sending Barrier flying backwards. He discharged into the sky as he did so, yelling several profanities.

Thel took his opening and stared running again. As he reached the foot of the hill, his COMs exploded to life.

"He's in COM range." Cortana stated.

"Hurry up, Shipmaster." Zhab snarled.

"I'm coming, -pant- hold on to your feathers, -pant- Jackal." Thel panted.

Normally, a short hundred and fifty meter sprint shouldn't have unconvinced him, but after spending several hours fighting in Flood controlled sector had taken a lot out of him.

He reached about halfway up the hill. A beam rifle fired from overhead, and Thel quickly glanced back to see the monitor hit the dirt again, giving another cry.

"Nice, -pant- shooting." He said, still panting.

"Rutag." Zhab grumbled in Kig-yar, firing another shot.

Thel finally reached the top of the hill and stopped, turning to examine the rescue party. It was just Zhab. John stood on the other side of the Jackal, watching the monitor attempting to dig himself out of the crater he'd slammed into.

The Spartan looked impassive, but Thel could see the fatigue in the way he stood, his arms hanging by his sides, his combat knife not even sheathed.

"Is it just you?" Thel asked.

"Nah. The rest are in a phantom at the bottom of the hill. Let's go." Zhab replied,

He turned and pointed towards a point of several lights, which turned out to be a phantom resting at the foot of the hill.

The three set off down the hill at a brisk pace, reaching about halfway when Cortana suddenly shouted;

"Incoming teleporter transmissions!"

About thirty meters away, three golden lights flared to life; from these lights, angry Flood forms charged. Thel reached to his side and drew his energy sword; Zhab raised his beam rifle again and fired. The middle form was blasted apart, causing one on the left to stumble, but the one on the right lunged forward. Thel bisected it in midair.

The phantom finally decided that it would do something, and a side turret blasted the final flood form to shreds.

"I'm detecting several more teleporter transmissions across the ring!" Cortana warned. "It appears that the Flood are spreading across the ring."

Several bright lights lit up the area behind. Thel heard several snarls from more Flood combat forms from behind them. Jimaenius suddenly burst onto the COM channel.

"Get down!" He roared.

All three hit the dirt in sequence. Jimaenius opened fire with the plasma turret. The air was suddenly filled with the cries and roars of flood forms as they were ripped up by the plasma barrage. As soon as the turret started, It stopped.

"Come on!" Jimaenius hissed.

Thel rose to his knee and kicked off, using the momentum to gain that little bit of extra speed starting off. It was a trick that Elder Doram Vadamee' had thought him back when he was vying to compete in the Zolatig tournament, when he was less than 14 years old. He blinked. The phantom was little more than ten meters away now. Jimaenius had sent the side bay door down, and now he stood clutching the side turret tightly, with Liyik and Limid standing side by side with him, fuel rods aimed and ready.

Thel grabbed onto the door and pulled himself onto the phantom. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw John jump into the dropship, before running into the cockpit of the dropship. Zhab was a good ten meters away from the phantom. The phantom's antigravity drives began to change in pitch, signifying imminent takeoff.

Thel kneeled on the bay door, extending his hand down towards the jackal. Zhab seized his hand just as the dropship lunged towards the sky. Thel tightened his grip, and with a little help from Jimaenius, pulled Zhab on board the dropship.

Thel quickly glanced towards the ground below, as the bay doors began to close. On the ground below he saw dozens of golden lights flare to life across the hills below them.

Thel opened the main team COM.

"I don't like what I'm seeing below..." He muttered as the bay door closed.

"It's not looking good. I'm detecting transporter signals arriving all around the surrounding area. It seems that the flood are going all out now." Cortana exhaled.

"Question." Zhab asked, giving Thel and Jimaenius a nod of thanks. "Why on Eayn are they using the teleporter only now? Wasn't it there from the beginning?"

"It seems that our stunt in the replicator reminded, or perhaps showed the Gravemind that there was a teleporter infrastructure on the ring." Cortana replied. "Or, alternatively, we could have just really pissed him off and driven him over the edge. Your choice."

Zhab swore quietly and sighed, turning and taking a seat on one of the supply crates lying inside the phantom.

The door to the cockpit opened, and John stepped out, and then leaned against the wall beside the door.

"You got here quickly." He said.

"We were actually just leaving the Spearhead when we noticed that your transponder location had changed." Jimaenius replied.

"You were heading out to pick us up from the Flood controlled territory, despite the danger?" Cortana asked.

"Yep." Liyik squeaked. "That was the plan."

He then dissolved into a fit of laughter with his brother. Thel shook his head. Some Unggoy, he would never understand.

"Well, then... Thanks." John concluded.

"Where are we going now?" Zhab asked.

"Back to the Spearhead. We sent a message to the GA. Hopefully, a ship will turn up soon enough." Cortana explained.

There was silence in the bay for three minutes, and the only thing to hear were the antigravity drives. Then a clank was heard; the dropship slowed and the artificial gravity cut out and was replaced by another, larger one. They were on board the UNSC Spearhead of Dawn.

The bay doors fell open on either side. Thel stood up and hopped out of the dropship.

Vala suddenly joined the team COM.

"Will all crew report to the bridge immediately, we have a situation." She sounded panicked.

Thel started towards the elevators at the end of the hangar bay. The rest of the Squad clambered out of the dropship and hurried after him. John sprinted up beside him, holding Cortana's chip tightly in his hand. They reached the elevator and went up at top speed. It took them around ten seconds to reach the top of the over two hundred meter tall ship.

The doors opened, revealing a hallway which led into the bridge of the Spearhead. John and Thel both quickly hurried into the bridge, the rest of the Squad following them from the other lift that arrived a few seconds later.

The two ONI operatives were sitting in the bridge, both staring at the holotable beside Thel's chair. The Spartan inserted Cortana's chip into a terminal.

Thel stopped beside his chair, which was occupied by the other human.

"Off." He growled.

She muttered something under her breath, but gave up the chair nevertheless.

"Cortana." The Sangheili muttered as he clasped the armrests of his chair and spun in around; "Status please."

The AI's holograph formed on the holotable.

"On it." She replied, immediately beginning to building a holograph of the halo; complete with red dots signifying covenant ships, and a large red patch on the ring signifying the Flood controlled zones.

Thel glanced back towards the front viewscreen; only to notice something out of the corner of his eye. He paused, uncertain of what he just saw. He focused on the outside of the window for a few seconds, and almost immediately, he spotted a plasma blue explosion rip through space.

He then spotted several other plasma torpedoes flying through space aswell.

He turned back towards Cortana.

"What's going on up there?" He growled.

Cortana pointed to the two hundred or so covenant ships, which were now scattered across space around the Halo. Faint red dots flew from them and connected with other ships of their own. It reminded Thel of the battle over High Charity at the start of the Great Schism less than a year ago.

"It seems that, when the flood started using the teleporters, a good portion of the covenant fleet didn't have their shields up, so the flood got on board and gained control of some ships, so now both sides are blasting each other apart up there." Cortana replied, ringing both hands behind her neck. "I don't like the looks of this..."

Suddenly, at exactly ninety degrees each across the ring, a red patch lit up.

"What are those?" Jimaenius asked.

"It seems that..." Cortana paused and scratched her head. "The monitor has begun activation of several failsafes across the ring... These appear to be ancient Forerunner ships."

"Well, he doesn't like us very much, so I don't think he's going to avoid us because we're not infected." Zhab pointed out.

"Red alert." Thel growled. "Bring all weapons to full capacity, shields to 75% and send whatever's left to engines."

There was a roar from the binaries as they flared to life.

"The battle for this Halo has well and truly begun."

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Here I leave you. The next chapter will be something else; I've been looking quite forward to writing it. Anyway, you guys, thanks for all your reads, favs, follows and reviews. It… Well, is really encouraging. Anyway, cya next time!**

 **Oh… by the way… R &R! **

**(Why did I add this?)**


	17. Chapter 16:Battle of Installation 06 pt2

**Well, guys… Thanks for all the reviews you guys game me. It really means a lot. Anyway, I'm not good with the opening A/N, so.. let's move on.**

 _Chapter 16: The Battle for Installation 06, part 2_

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Over Halo installation 06, February 20_ _th_ _, 2553._

The Spearhead was much more manoeuvrable than the average UNSC frigate. John found it extremely strange watching the ground of the Halo whizz by below them, while at the same time turn side to side as though they were in a longsword dodging enemy AA fire.

Cortana and Vala were in control of pretty much everything on the Spearhead, with Thel being the only member of the Squad who had a role on board the ship. The rest of the Squad could only sit tight and hope that they didn't get blown up.

"Six plasma torpedoes coming around at 214 by 043." Cortana reported.

"Engage Triteries, come about 75 port." Thel ordered.

The side thrusters fired, pulling the frigate around. The plasma torpedoes flew by the shields and came around again.

"Torpedoes are on return trajectory. The CCS Battlecruiser that fired is on our tail. They are charging energy projectors." Vala announced.

"Refocus energy shields to plasma impact zone, fire Bowmen pods one to six." Thel snapped, strapping himself to his chair. "All hands, Brace!"

John couldn't help for a moment but marvel at how quickly the Sangheili sprouted the commands. Then he grabbed a nearby chair and sat down, strapping himself in as the chair creaked angrily against his weight.

The rest of the squad also sat down and strapped in. The plasma torpedoes slammed into the shields, giving a loud GONG sound. The Master Chief's chair snapped forward from the force of the impact and barely stayed in tact, groaning as it did so.

"Bowmen pods impact in three... Two... One... Impact." Cortana reported.

A red speck vanished from the holograph.

"Target destroyed. Shields down to sixty-three percent."

"Very well." Thel sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Let's get out of here."

"We can't, unfortunately. The Covenant station is destroying any ships that attempt to leave. That's why the flood are still fighting around the Halo. They're winning a lot of the ground below, though." Cortana informed them.

There was silence in the bridge for a few seconds. John turned back to watch the holographic display of the battle over the Halo; tiny red specks travelled between the larger spots representing ships. Occasionally, a spot disappeared completely.

"A destroyer bearing signs of infection and two battlecruisers are closing on our vector." Vala informed them.

"Get us out of their trajectory, evasive 67 by 29." Thel grumbled.

The side thrusters ignited, and the Halo below began to fill the viewscreen. The Spartan, watching the holographic display, noting several small pinpricks moving in on the Spearhead from a rising Forerunner ship on the ring.

"We've got a lot of very small contacts coming in from the forerunner ship." John informed them.

Thel paused.

"What are they?" He asked.

"Scanning." Cortana replied. "They seem to be... Sentinels! Sentinels of various classes closing in on 243 by 59."

"Bring AA online, focus fire!" Thel spat, spittle flying from his jaws.

The Sangheili seemed to notice this, and swallowed several times before giving his next order. The AAs opened up with a crackle. Streaks of yellow and white flashed; and several Sentinels exploded, but enough remained for them to maintain a V formation, and execute an attack run.

Their yellow beams and a few small explosives detonated against the Spearhead's shields. No change. Zhab snorted from somewhere behind John. He, personally, found the whole attack very anticlimactic.

The front viewscreen was filled by the landscape of the Halo below. A covenant destroyer streaked below, pursued by two battlecruisers.

"The battlecruisers are splitting up. One for the destroyer, one for us." Cortana remarked.

"Too bad for them." Zhab snorted.

Thel parted his jaws in a grin of agreement.

"Bring us down to half a kilometer over the atmosphere. Fire Bowmen pods 7 to 9."

The pods fired and streaked towards the battlecruiser. The ship lunged to the right, avoiding half of the payload fired at it. The other half slammed into the front of its hull.

"We're over atmosphere." Vala reported.

The battlecruiser turned back over and charged its plasma torpedo launchers. Red lights winked to life across the covenant ship.

Ahead of them, the destroyer took several impacts, pulled back up, and narrowly streaked by over the Spearhead.

"That's close." Jimaenius growled slightly.

The seconds battlecruiser flew by overhead as well, and then fired at the destroyer. Their persuing battlecruiser also fired, but at them.

"Evasive, pull back, spin 20 degrees per second." Thel ordered.

The torpedoes sped towards them, but Cortana hit the undercarriage's main emergency booster. The torpedoes whizzed by and fell into the Halo's thicker atmosphere, where they were torn apart.

"Nuclear missiles are now online."

The Spartan blinked; he'd forgotten they even had nukes in the first place.

"Fire pods 20 to 24." Thel ordered, slamming his hand into the armrest of his chair.

The cruiser powered straight underneath the frigate, spun right beneath them, and took all the pods straight in the midsection. It exploded violently, sending the debris falling into the planet's atmosphere.

"Target destroyed." Cortana announced. "The destroyer and battlecruiser have exited range."

"Okay... Any thing else to worry about now?" Jimaenius asked, resignedly.

The Master chief scanned the holograph. There were no ships within the immediate range.

"Nothing else." He announced.

"What's going on the Halo?" Thel asked.

"The flood has spread extremely quickly; 35% surface coverage now." Vala announced.

There was silence in the bridge.

"Argal." Thel snarled. "Cortana, Vala, get a NOVA class nuke ready."

"Aye." Cortana replied. "Nova ready in one minute thirt-"

"Slipspace rupture dead ahead!" Vala suddenly shouted.

A flash of blue lit up space dead ahead. From the swirling portal, a huge shape emerged; it was like a sword, vertically pointing down. From its sides were two long almost hooklike smaller swords. (The Forerunner Dreadnought from Halo Wars if I'm not mistaken)

It did not approach. Instead, it seemed to effortlessly be matching pace with them, staying the same distance away.

"We're receiving a hail from the ship." Cortana announced.

"Patch it through." The Sangheili hissed.

"Ah! rEclAimeR! SAnghEiLi! I hAvE FouNd yOU!" Barrier voice came over the speakers.

He sounded ecstatic, as though finding them two was his lifelong goal, and he'd finally achieved it. Howvere, his rampancy was belied by his voice breaking as he said the words.

Several lights winked on across the Forerunner ship.

"They're charging weapons!" Cortana warned.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC_ Infinit _y, somewhere in slipspace, Bridge, February 20_ _th_ _, 2553._

Margaret Parangosky had so far enjoyed her stay on _Infinity_. However, she hadn't seen the new Flagship of humanity in action yet. Hopefully it would turn out as well as shed told it would be. And how better to test her than against a Covenant fleet at a Halo.

"Arrival at Halo in five seconds!" Someone yelled from across the bridge.

 _Infinity_ had no dedicated AI yet, so everything except for really complicated mathematics was done manually in the bridge. Dumb AIs could still handle things such as firing solutions and impact coordination. In many ways, Parangosky rather preferred that. Just one ship and her crew, the ship a well-oiled machine, and the crew the cogs.

"4… 3…"

"Bring all ships in fleet to red alert. We are going into most likely hostile territory. Arm all weapons. Stand by to fire." Hood ordered.

"2… 1…"

Stars suddenly winked to life around the Infinity and Parangosky felt her gut settle as the fleet dropped into realspace. Ahead, a huge ring drifted above a huge gas giant.

"Captain!" Sensors yelled. "We have multiple contacts and fire being exchanged. It's full on war!"

Parangosky could make out explosions of plasma in the distance, along with ships darting across space. However, the most noticeable thing was definitely the huge covenant station that drifted near the center of the ring.

"Get a reading on the Communications being exchanged around both fleets. I want to know who's shooting and why." Parangosky said, as firmly as she could.

"Right away, admiral!" Someone called out.

"We've picked up a friendly ship in the dead center of the combat. It's the UNSC Spearhead of Dawn!" Another voice called from across the room.

There were a few grunts from around the room; but no one recognized the ship's name. Hell, Parangosky barely knew anything about it. All she knew was that it was Admiral Walker's ship, and it contained his top squad. Parangosky hated being in the dark. Usually it was her who gave the traces of secrets, not others. She'd forgotten the last time that it had been that way.

"Ping that ship, get her up for me." Captain Del Rio ordered. "I want all the info she has."

"Stand by, deploy aggressively." Hood ordered to the entire fleet.

"Ten Covenant ships just grouped up and are headed directly towards the fleet on an attack vector. They have launched fighters and are charging plasma weaponry." Cme a shout from across the bridge.

"All ships, launch your own fighters, counter those bogeys incoming. All ships lock missiles and torpedoes on the advancing covenant fleet." Parangosky ordered.

"We've got a visual on the Spearhead."

"Onscreen." Hood ordered.

The image of a UNSC frigate appeared on the main screen. It was a version Parangosky had never seen before. Apparently, Walker was keeping more secrets than she taught. She'd have to step up her own Sector's security.

The frigate moved quickly, rapidly firing plasma torpedoes, or those new BOWMEN Pods that were replacing the ARCHER Pods, from its sides. Something huge pursued it. The view screen moved to keep focus on the frigate, leaving the ship behind a blur.

"Pause it." Parangosky ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

The frigate froze in place, the huge ship occupying the corner of the screen.

"What," Parangosky asked, "Is that?"

There was silence for a second.

"Approaching ships closing to twelve thousand kilometers." Someone announced.

"Fire at will." Hood quickly replied.

The torpedoes and missiles streaked into space, forming that "sea" of plasma that the UNSC had once feared so much.

"Admiral?" Someone asked.

"Yes?" Both her and Hood answered.

"The ship in pursuit seems to be a Forerunner ship; but it matches nothing in our records. I'm reading huge energy buildups in various locations across the hull; I assume that the Forerunner ship is charging weapons."

Parangosky bit her lip. "Not good." She muttered.

"Weapon impact in five seconds!" Another shout joined the bustle of the Bridge.

Parangosky had found this battle chaotic already, and they hadn't even engaged. The plasma weapons closed on the covenant fleet and slammed home. Nine bright flashes of light came to life on the distance. The bridge fell silent for a few seconds.

"Nine ships destroyed, sir." Someone reported. "We've got one ship that survived emerging from the debris."

The small cruiser was slightly damaged, but still discharged a swarm of six plasma torpedoes. Then a late plasma torpedo slammed into the center of the cruiser, sending it spinning away before being ripped in half by and explosion. Someone laughed.

The offending ship's plasma torpedoes flew through space, before detonating against the shields of the GA fleet. No ships destroyed.

"Admirals! The covenant station is locking weapons on us!"

"Target their energy charge points. All ships, coordinate fire to arrive at the same time." Hood ordered.

"Aye, sir. All ships standing by."

"Fire." Hood sighed.

The covenant ships in the GA fleet fired first; plasma torpedoes arced through space, followed by light MAC rounds from the UNSC ships; finally followed by the _Infinity_ 's heavy SMACs.

At once, the station was lit by several bright flashes across its hull.

"Target has suffered heavy damage along the side facing us."

Parangosky nodded her head almost involuntarily; shed forgotten what active battle felt like. She did it anyway; it was a neat way of presenting relatability to the crew. It would make it easier to get any of them on side, if she needed to.

"We are ten thousand kilometers from the battle, entering combat zone."

The Infinity turned to the side to avoid the debris of the ships that had been already destroyed.

"Sir? Ma'am? We've intercepted the interfleet COMs. It seems that some of the fleet... Has been infected by the flood from the ring."

The bridge fell silent once again.

"That explains the presence of the Forerunner ships." Hood finally muttered. "They must be attempting containment."

"Surface scans of the Halo have revealed that there is a large Flood infection in several sections of the ring."

Parangosky glanced over at Hood. His usually calm, collected demeanor was mostly gone, replaced with the grim, almost resigned look that many UNSC commanders had taken on during the war.

"That's not good." Hood sighed, leaning heavily against a railing in the bridge.

"Nine thousand, five hundred kilometers from battle center." Someone called out.

"Two Forerunner ships are locking on the fleet, and are moving an attack interception course." Sensors suddenly reported.

Parangosky turned to the central holotable aboard Infinity, which was now projecting a display of the battle, and now the Forerunner ships. They seemed to be almost sword shaped; Long, thin, and pointed at the bottom. They had smaller; thinner swords like extruding from the side.

Two covenant ships on the battlefield holograph turned towards the fleet. Several GA ships fired. The covenant ships winked out of existence.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Unknown Star system, deep space, February 20th, 2553._

Kursnow drifted outside a huge hole in his cruiser. Beside him drifted his chief engineer.

"How long will it take to fix?" He asked, sounding irritated.

"Well, chieftain, Our estimates would put it at six to eight hours." The engineer paused, sounding concerned. "The stream containers were fried by the plasma impact. We have to seal up the breach and then refit the circuitry. Until then, our ship isn't moving."

Kursnow sighed. "How long until you can start?"

"I... Cannot say, Chieftain. We still have to finish up with the underside plasma turret and the main projector."

He gestured to the underside of the cruiser in front of them. The gesture sent the Jiralhanae into a spin. He grumbled something and fired his thrusters to stabilise himself.

The hole in front of them was ten meters long and five meters high. Two decks were exposed by the burnt and twisted metal. Kursnow spun around and headed towards the phantom hovering several meters away. The engineer sighed and followed him. The dropship had its doors wide open and exposed to space. The two Brutes flew into bay. Both sets of doors closed and there was a hiss as the atmosphere repressurised.

Kursnow removed his helmet. "Take us back."

He stepped up into the cockpit and watched as the phantom headed back to its home cruiser. They passed over the huge city-like structures on the central rear of the cruiser, whizzing by underneath the two bars that were attached over the cluster of structures.

The pilot pulled back the main stick and brought the phantom back, diving under the long top section and into the hangar bay.

Kursnow watched his crew chaotically milled about the hangar bay. Another day wasted.

Patience. Patience.

Who doesn't love a good hunt, after all?

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Somewhere over Halo installation 06, February 20th 2553._

Zhab knew that if he got out of this alive, he would have a great story to tell his bartender. Provided he actually managed to get to Eayn afterwards. Provided the bar was still standing back on the planet.

The ship creaked as it pulled a hard right and accelerated upwards to avoid a blast from the Forerunner ship. It did so so quickly that for a second, the counter-gravity fields were unable to compensate for the sudden change.

He was momentarily glued to his seat.

"BOWMEN pod capacity down to fifteen percent." The human AI called.

"These things are bloody invincible." Jimaenius snarled from his seat.

"Cease fire Cortana." The shipmaster sighed. "No need to waste ammo."

The ship jerked again as the Forerunner ship fired again, scoring a direct hit to the shields.

"Shields down to thirty two percent. Integrity will be compromised at twenty percent." The Sangheili AI affirmed.

The shipmaster snarled angrily.

"It seems that its hull is too strong."

The Spearhead took another impact from the Forerunner ship's beam.

"I have you now!" The forerunner machine broke out of the jamming spectrum they'd placed on his messages and began shouting in his garbled voice again. "You will burn in a f-"

"Isolate him and cut him off." The Sangheili ordered angrily.

"Done." The monitor's voice was squelched mid-sentence.

Zhab was thinking.

"That ship has to have some kind of weak point." He thought allowed.

"It's possible that it doesn't;" The human AI countered immediately. "The Forerunners had been building ships for millennia. It's very possible they perfected the design. After all, why have a machine that has an exposed weak point guard their last hope?"

Zhab growled and settled back into his chair, his argument defeated.

"The SMAC is fully charged." The Sangheili AI announced.

The Spartan's head suddenly jerked slightly.

"Perhaps the MAC will make a difference." He said slowly.

"I doubt it." Zhab replied.

"Perhaps..." The Sangheili said. "It packs more punch than a single BOWMEN pod."

He spun his chair towards the holotable, which now displayed a large model of the forerunner ship.

"Perhaps if we go for the extremities on the side..."

"There is a magnetic current holding them in place. It deflects any nearby BOWMEN shots." The human AI replied.

An idea came to Zhab.

"Could we use the MAC to separate the two? If we hit the wing on the inside, it could be forced out of the magnetic range." He proposed.

The other members of the Squad stared at him silently. The other two who were present but weren't a part of their squad did the same, but that was no surprise; They'd been doing that for the whole battle anyway.

"... That may work." The Human concluded.

"It's the best we've got." The Shipmaster grunted.

He turned to face the front viewscreen.

"Bring us up, cut power and line us up as they pass. Fire when ready." He ordered in a serious, deadpan tone.

"Aye." The human AI answered. "Hold on tight, boys and girls."

The ship's engines roared loudly for two seconds and then shut off completely. The artificial gravity fluctuated for a second, then rectified. The Spearhead rose over the Forerunner ship as it sped by underneath them. It began to turn to face them, still maintaining its speed, going around in a wide arc.

The maneuvering thrusters fired. The bow of the ship aligned.

"Fire." The Sangheili growled quietly.

The ships moved in silence for a second, and then the hull gave a faint thud. A streak of white light streaked away through space and intercepted the Forerunner ship, slamming into the left "wing" of the ship. There was another, albeit more faint flash of white.

The wing was torn clean from the central structure and flew out into space. The forerunner ship spun violently as well. As it did, Zhab spotted an opening where the wing had been prior.

"There!" He gasped. "An opening!"

The Sangheili did not hesitate. "Fire at will!"

The Spearhead spat dozens of BOWMEN pods at the opening. They curved around and dive into the hull as the frigate passed. They vanished, but then a few flashes came from the opening.

"I'm detecting several unbalances in the Forerunner ship's reactor." The human AI warned. "The ship appears to be about to implode."

"Get us out of range."

The ship's engines roared and the ship accelerated away. Behind them, the forerunner ship shrunk and exploded immediately after.

"Forerunner ship destroyed." The Sangheili AI confirmed.

"Well done." The Sangheili sounded relieved. "Good idea."

Zhab's pride inflated a notch.

"Thanks." He grinned.

"How long until we can contact that GA fleet?" The human asked.

"Long range COMs are down, as you know, but we need to get within five thousand kilometers to be able to use the short range ones." The human AI replied. "Our long range receiver is damaged, so we can't receive anything they're sending us, if anything."

"Get us into range, then." The shipmaster growled.

The engines changed in pitch; and the Spearhead brought its nose up.

"On course for GA fleet. Arrival in twelve minutes; in COM range in t- Concentrated energy flare detected on 23 degrees on the Halo." The AI suddenly paused and alerted them.

The holotable changed to a view of the whole Halo ring. A huge red pulse emanated from a section of it. A line from space impacted into the ground. It zoomed up, revealing another Forerunner ship; the same kind in fact; except this one was surrounded by several smaller versions of its wings. They were interconnected by several lines of beams; all aligned in a circle formation, with the larger Forerunner ship in the center. (Halo legends part 1, the flood invasion of the Forerunner Empire shows this configuration)

"What's it doing?" Jimaenius asked.

"It seems to be firing a concentrated beam at the Halo's surface. It must be attempting to wipe out the infection."

At that moment, the monitor burst onto the COMs again, although, this time he didn't seem to be talking directly to them, more just broadcasting to everybody nearby.

"We will no- I will not- heh heh heh- stand for this, Parasite. Shaping sickness. I name you plague, destroyer, unspeakable, the evilest thing to exist, defiler! Now I, I will destroy you, Burn your final Essence, DO, WHAT THE FORERUNNERS COULD NOT!" Screamed the insane machine.

 _He who talks the highest falls the smallest._

Zhab didn't know where the voice came from. He didn't hear it, He more... Felt it. It was inside his head. It was like a thought. A thought that was not his. The voice was powerful and deep. It felt old; older than anything Zhab knew of. And it terrified him.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Somewhere over installation 06, Febraury 20th, 2553._

Vala felt helpless. Cortana single-handedly flew the Spearhead, leaving her with nothing to do. So she watched the battle.

There were around thirty covenant ships left, all fighting around the Covenant station. The GA fleet was about to be intercepted by two Forerunner ships. They had no idea what the weak spot of the ship was.

They were still out of COM range by five hundred kilometers. The GA fleet opened fire. Plasma torpedoes and MACs streaked through space and smashed into the ship. It was thrown backwards by the sheer force of the weapons, but was undamaged. The second ship passed by and fired two beams at the GA fleet. It hit one frigate and a battlecruiser. The battlecruiser spun away, stunned, while the frigate was punctured through the upper and undercarriage, destroying the MAC. The frigate continued firing ARCHER pods though, unperturbed by the damage.

The fleet opened fire on the ship, but it was undamaged by the plasma torpedoes and BOWMEN pods. It charged up its weapons again. The second cruiser fell into position beside it and began to do the same.

They entered COM range. Vala was first to send a message as they barraged by messages from the GA fleet.

"This is the AI Vala of the UNSC Spearhead of Dawn. The Forerunner ships have only one weakness. Target this point." She sent a diagram showing how the SMAC ripped the Forerunner ship open.

"We read you, Spearhead of D... Target the point!" Someone from the lead ship; _Infinity_ , responded.

"It's Lord Hood!" Cortana said in the bridge.

Vala didn't recall the name, but had an effect on Thel and John. They paused briefly and looked at each other.

"What's our SMAC charge?" Thel asked.

Vala checked. "16%"

The GA fleet fired at the second Forerunner ship. The plasma torpedoes and BOWMEN pods were deflected away from the target; but the MACs hit home. The wing of the ship was pushed to the limit, but was caught and jammed in the ship.

The _Infinity_ fired its SMACs. The wing was ripped clean from the ship.

"Point exposed!" Hood announced. "Fire at will!"

The plasma torpedoes and BOWMEN pods smashed into the exposed hole. Flashes emanated from the hole, and the ancient warship detonated. The second Forerunner ship fired. The stricken battlecruiser was smashed apart by the beams and exploded.

From another point on the ring, the last ship fired at the Halo ring, giving off a huge burst of energy and radiation. The monitor screamed angrily over the COMs again.

"You will not have this ring, It is mine, It has always been, and it will always be!"

The Spearhead fired a volley of BOWMEN pods at the remaining Forerunner ship. This made no impression on the behemoth, but it turned around and charged.

"Right," Cortana muttered. "We've got their attention, now what?"

"SMAC?" Thel asked, scratching his left bottom jaw somewhat nervously.

"23%" Cortana replied.

"Shields?"

"30%"

The Foreunner ship's weapons charged, glowing against the hull.

The GA fleet fired. They had reloaded, MACs slammed against the Forerunner hull once again. No damage, but the ship was sent spinning by the Spearhead. It fired. All shots missed.

Cortana hit the binaries and pulled under the hull of the nearest ship, the _Infinity,_ The second Forerunner ship came around quickly, almost angrily. It charged its weapons again. The GA sent a swarm of plasma torpedoes and BOWMEN pods towards the ship. It flew through the explosion unharmed.

It fired its weapons. The beams cut through space, two smashing straight through a marathon class cruiser. The cruisers middle seemed to liquefy as it exploded, and the cruiser collapsed, broken into two halves.

The other two beams dashed against the _Infinity_. The battleship didn't even flinch.

"Main batteries to seventy five percent!" Someone yelled from the _Infinity_.

The Forerunner ship's weapons lit up again, gradually getting brighter and brighter...

The Spearhead lined itself up behind the _Infinity_ , using her hulk as another shield. The Forerunner ship fired again. A covenant destroyer's main hull was cut apart. The ship spun away, broken.

"Fire MACs!" Lord Hood suddenly ordered.

The UNSC GA ships fired. The _Infinity_ fired her main batteries. The heavy MACs of the Infinity were first arrive, smashing into the Forerunner ship's wing and tearing it off. The UNSC MAC payload arrived almost immediately afterwards. The rounds sent the ship flying backwards, stunned.

The ancient ship spun through space for several seconds, then a well-placed energy projector shot hit home, driving straight through the hole in the side of the Forerunner ship.

It exploded into several large fragments. The GA fleet COM was silent for several seconds.

"Both Forerunner ships have been destroyed." An AI announced.

Vala initiated a long range scan and once again identified the last Forerunner ship hovering over the ring. It fired at the ring again. There was a brief flash from the struck portion of the Halo.

Once again, the monitor screamed in laughter.

"Burn, Parasite. Burn and begone from my ring!" He screamed.

No. Not this time. Not again.

The Gravemind's voice reverberated through the COMs. The source was untraceable. It was almost like it wasn't broadcasted. But that was impossible. Or was it?... For a second, Vala was stuck in a blank loop for a second.

The GA fleet argued amount at themselves whether or not to engage the monitors bombardment formation. Barrier turned his ships towards the covenant station. The first shot smashed straight through it, but the second shot narrowly missed the lower pillar second as it accelerated.

A slipspace rupture tore open space and the station jumped to slipspace. With the station gone, there were only seven non-GA covenant ships were left. The monitor's huge formation turned towards them and fired. A mostly undamaged Covenant destroyer exploded from the impact and went spiralling down towards the ring below.

It fired again. Another ship was destroyed.

The remaining five were still fighting, and their manoeuvring brought them into... The formation fired. Three ships were struck straight through by the shot. They all exploded in sequence.

The other two ships turned and fled, but the monitor was prepared from this. Two smaller ships separated from the formation quickly and peeled after the two escaping ships. They smashed through the shielded ships, and the pair detonated at almost the same second. The smaller Forerunner ships pulled back to the formation and took their places.

"Space above ring cleared to seventy-five percent. Targets acquired. My ring will be mine and mine alone, once again!" He laughed.

"Focus fire!" Hood ordered, and the GA fleet locked targets.

Cortana hit the Spearhead's top thrusters and pulled them out of the shadow of Infinity. They aligned their weapons as the Forerunner turret formation turned to face them.

They fired. MACs and plasma torpedoes whizzed through space, slamming against the different ships of the formation. Many ships were driven backwards or were sent spinning by the force of the rounds. Infinity and the Spearhead fired last; they were aiming for the central ship in the formation, hoping to expose a hole under the wing of the ship. The rounds impacted, but the monitor had learned from this tactic, and had shut his wings as tightly as he could against the main hull. As it was, the SMAC shots failed to knock the wings out of their housing, but managed to get them completely stuck in sides of the Forerunner ship. As the plasma torpedoes closed in, a few ship from the formation glowed and executed a pinpoint slipspace jump, arriving less than a hundred kilometers from the fleet. One of the smaller focusing ships lunged forward, smashing into the hull of a destroyer. The ship's reactor immediately exploded, and the smaller ship withdrew, but was pounded by several volleys of BOWMEN pods and plasma torpedoes, many of which had turned around and targeted the ships again.

"Evasive!" Came a cry from several ships over the interfleet COM.

The GA fleet turned away from the formation in from of them. Cortana sent full power to the starboard triterries, pulling them away from the formation dead ahead, bearing port. Infinity pulled to the other side as well. Barrier's ship fired. The beams smashed through a covenant corvette.

The unshielded hull was cut apart amidst several explosions.

Infinity released a huge volley from her port side. This smashed into one of the nearby smaller ships. The ship gave several small explosions across its hull and fell silent.

Barrier screamed in anger again and fired. These shots lashed across the Infinity but failed to penetrate the shields. Two battlecruisers and the ten strident class frigates fired fired a mixture of ventral beams and MACs straight at the more dented looking of the wings. The wings was smashed off and spun away slowly. A sea of plasma torpedoes and BOWMEN pods converged on the opening.

"No, NO, NO!" Barrier screamed again. "I WILL DEFEND MY RING! YOU WILL NOT HAVE IT! IT IS MINE! MY GIFT!"

He rapidly opened fire with all his beams. They broke plasma torpedoes apart on impact. For a second, it seemed as though the monitor would succeed in his goal of repelling the swarm, but the sheer number of torpedoes overwhelmed the defences.

The weapons made their way into the hole in the ship's side, destroying the internals.

"NO! NO! NOOOAHHHHHHH!" Screamed Barrier.

His ship detonated in a blinding flash of light. His COMs fell silent for the last time.

The GA fleet now drifted alone above the Halo. The surface was largely blackened and smashed apart by Barrier's weapons.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **Well, here ends the Installation 06 arc of this story. But it's not over yet. Not by a long shot. There's plenty of questions that have to be answered, except for one that won't be.**

 **Cya next time, and in the meantime, R &R.**


	18. Chapter 17: Court Martial

**My goodness. It's been two months since I updated. I'm so sorry. Here's what happened. For most of May, I was busy studying for some major exams and then in June, I was doing the exams for most of June. And then, I continued to write, and then I started playing Halo 5 again. I'd forgotten why I loved Halo. Watched E3 too. Halo Wars 2 looks good. But now I remember. Good times. But now, I'm back in business.**

 **17: Court Martial**

 _/ LOG:_

 _/THEYEN (GALACTIC ALLIANCE COUNCIL WORLD)/_

 _GALACTIC ALLIANCE FORCES HAVE DISCOVERED HALO INSTALLATION 06. MONITOR DESTROYED FOLLOWING ENGAGEMENT. MINOR CASUALTIES TO GALACTIC ALLIANCE FORCES (1 CCS CLASS BATTLECRUISER: "HERETICAL BEGINNINGS" AND 1 SDV CLASS CORVETTE: "LIGHT OF URS" AND 1 PARIS CLASS HEAVY FRIGATE: "UNSC UNBRIDLED RAGE" DESTROYED, 1 [REDACTED] CLASS HEAVY FRIGATE: "UNSC SPEARHEAD OF DAWN" HEAVILY DAMAGED. OTHER SHIPS RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE)_

 _INSTALLATION 06 IS NOW UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE GALACTIC ALLIANCE (FLEET SIZE: 12). LARGE PORTIONS OF FLOOD INFECTION PRESENT ACROSS THE SURFACE OF THE HALO. FLEET IS BOMBARDING HEAVILY INFECTED AREAS. FLOOD APPEARS TO BE AT PRIMITIVE STATE; NO GRAVEMIND OR EARLY GRAVEMIND FORMS HAVE BEEN FOUND (ALTHOUGH SEVERAL MISSION REPORTS DIRECTLY MENTION A GRAVEMIND)_

 _TWO OPTIONS FACE THIS COUNCIL. THERE ARE NOW LARGE QUANTITIES OF FORERUNNER WEAPONS AND SHIP PARTS ARE NOW IN ORBIT IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA OF THE HALO. THEIR RECOVERY MAY GREATLY ACCELERATE GALACTIC ALLIANCE SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS._

 _OPTIONS ARE TO BE DELIBERATED AMONGST THIS COUNCIL._

 _1\. DESTROY THE HALO USING A (Nova) CLASS NUCLEAR WEAPON TO DESTABILISE THE HALO'S ROTATION. THIS WILL (100 Sims predicted a 86% destruction rate of the Forerunner technology in orbit)_

 _DESTROY A LARGE AMOUNT OF THE FORERUNNER TECHNOLOGY._

 _2\. BOMBARD THE HALO TO DESTROY THE FLOOD INFECTION. THERE ARE 50 (Approximately) GLASSING CAPABLE SHIPS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR TRANSFER TO THE HALO. BOMBARDMENT TIME ESTIMATED AT 5-120 DAYS (Based per ship number)._

 _ADDITIONAL NOTES:_

 _THIS REPORT WAS TRANSLATED IN GALACTIC ALLIANCE MEMBER LANGUAGES BY THE AIS STERBUM AND SEERSHA._

 _THIS REPORT WAS COMPILED BY THE UNSC AI FTN-1528 (FINTAN) ON THE ORDER OF ADMRL. SIR TERRENCE HOOD AND ADMRL MARGARET PARANGOSKY FOR PRESENTATION TO THE GALACTIC ALLIANCE COUNCIL._

 _/END/_

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Earth orbit, On board "Grace" Station, 1st of March, 2553._

The Infinity personally took the Spearhead to the UNSCs last largest "Cradle" repair station. The Spearhead had been in refit for several days at this point, so her crew had been housed in the station's temporary quarters.

Thel held his crystal in hand. This... Thing had effect him in such a way that intrigued the monitor to the point in which he was willing to leave the Sangheili alive to examine him.

The grey crystal was cold and darkened. Thel had assumed that it had been a Forerunner energy source, but the monitor's fascinating reaction had made him feel that it was not Foreunner. Something greater. He didn't know what to think of that.

Could he control this power? He wasn't sure. It seemed to respond to his thoughts and his emotions, but that time when the Spearhead had been in that black space, what he wanted was exactly what the crystal to do.

He decided that it needed to be kept safe. Sure, it had some side effects such as faster slipspace travel, but for what had happened as a result of their journey to Installation 06, he wanted to keep it within his grasp, but not use it to his advantage.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a knocking on his door.

"Hello? Mr. Vadam?"

Human then. Thel found the human Mr and Mrs acronym strange.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Admiral Walker has requested you and your first mate's presence on deck A6." Came the reply.

"Very well. I will meet him there."

"Um, well, okay, I'll tell him that..."

He heard footsteps receding. He put the crystal into a pouch on the right thigh of his uniform. He turned and stood up. He took a last look across the room before turning towards the door.

He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The corridor was dimly lit by a few lights along the corridor. He turned and knocked on John's door.

"Yes?" He heard the human say.

"Admiral Walker has requested our presence on deck A6." Thel muttered.

"Very well."

The door slid open revealing the Spartan, but within naval blues. It was almost funny to the Sangheili to see John without his armor.

The two headed back up the corridor to the lift. Thel stepped in and pressed the button for deck A6. John followed him in.

The doors closed and the lift hummed as it ascended. The trip pasted less than a minute before stopping and opening the door. John and Thel both stepped out into the huge Atrium of the station. Thel quickly spotted Walker staring out the main window into space, his hands clasped behind his back.

The window revealed the two front pads of the station. The pads were occupied by one ship each; A small covenant cruiser and half of a destroyer, obviously being scrapped for parts.

Thel and John stepped up behind the admiral. He took no notice of them, continuing to watch the repairs continue.

"Admiral, s-" John began, but Walker raised a hand to stop him.

"I always found these stations fascinating. They're the largest UNSC ships ever built, you know?" The Admiral spoke. "Thirteen point two kilometers stem to stern. And even slipspace capable. I remember back when I was merely an ONI captain back in the 2530s watching ships being repaired over Reach."

He turned towards the two.

"Of course, that's unimportant now. Do you know why you've been called up here?"

John spoke first, as Thel was relatively unfamiliar with the human protocols regarding missions.

"We've submitted our reports, you debriefed us three days ago, so unless there was a discrepancy in the reports, I can't think of any reason, sir." John replied in a steady voice.

Walker's mouth twitched slightly, but his face remained impassive.

"Gentlemen, The GA officially came into being during December of last year. Section 4 came into existence on the same day, making us 4 months old now. We're still low on senior officers and such. You two are our fourth and fifth highest ranking members at the moment." He told them.

Thel and John merely nodded, not quite sure what the meaning of this talk was going to end up being.

"I would have been at Halo zero six if I could, but something came up on the nineteenth last month, and I've been stuck dealing with that. Luckily enough, a Halo was important enough that Margaret and Terrence would be able to go there and the GA wouldn't end up asking me awkward questions."

Walker chuckled slightly, readjusted his navy cap, and resumed his talk.

"Anyway, disregarding the Halo, I've been stuck dealing with a mess in the Agency for the last two weeks. Two of our agents just completely blew a several years worth of cover in an insurrectionist cell, devised even before Section 4 came into existence. The circumstances regarding this are very questionable." Walker sighed. "They're in section 4, therefore, It's my responsibility to deal with. We're going to Court-Martial them. You two will be sitting the prosecution with me and General Shalin and Vice Admiral Tudra."

"Very well, sir." John replied.

Thel merely nodded. The admiral, however seemed satisfied with their responses, and took a piece of paper out of a front pouch of his suit.

"When you get back to your cabins, ask an AI to get you the records for the event mentioned on the paper. The Court Martial will take place tomorrow." He told them.

Thel took the small sheet of paper. Walker nodded and turned back to the main window, watching the ships on the two pads below.

"Can I ask you a question, admiral?" Thel asked as John headed for the elevator.

"Yes, 'Vadam?" He asked.

"Do you have any insight into the duration that the repairs on our ship should take?"

Walker shrugged.

"It's not just a simple repair she's going through; Margaret's been keeping secrets on her stridents, Now I have to catch her out with my new spearhead class. The Spearhead of Dawn will be the first. Initially, she was built out of the hull materials of the scrapped ships Forward unto Dawn and the Spear, but now She's under a full refit now. As to how long it will take, I cannot say."

"I was under the impression that the Spearhead was already refitted, and that she was just getting repairs." Thel replied.

Walker shook his head and sighed.

"She was initially a very refitted frigate. As there is now a new class, the frigate's systems need to be brought up to date, a couple of now spearhead class standards have to be added, etc."

Thel nodded and turned away. He heard Walker turn around to continue his observations. John was standing beside the elevator door, watching the Sangheili approach.

The two entered the rift in silence. The doors slid closed and John hit the button for their floor.

"What exactly is a court-martial?" Thel asked.

John turned slowly and exhaled.

"A court-marital is essentially a trial for soldiers. The two that we're about to court-martial must have done something that directly violated orders from the upper brass and made something worse." He shrugged. "I suppose that we can get more info off Cortana."

Thel considered what he'd just heard. The Covenant had nothing like that, but then again, Sangheili were always so inflexible, so unquestioning, that the only thing close was a direct telling off by the prophets. But if you got there anyway, you were probably done for anyway.

His mark of shame was his last remnant of his servitude of the Covenant. But it would always be his last anyway, up to the day he died, he would never be free of it. He raised his arm and placed over his imprinted breast.

The lift doors slid open. John took the lead and led the Sangheili to his room. As he reached the door, Thel took out the note Walker had given him.

John pulled out a chair from under a desk in his cabin. He extended his hand towards the bed, offering it as a seat to the Sangheili.

Thel grunted and took a seat. John turned pulled a slot out of his wall, which caused a platform to fold out from the wall, revealing an AI holopad.

"Cortana?" He asked.

There was silence.

He repeated the question, and was answered this time.

"Hi, Cortana is not here slash is probably ignoring you, so please leave a message."

The two of them glanced at each other. Obviously, Cortana would have had to have acknowledged their presence to send that message, so that debunked what she claimed.

Unless...

"Vala?" Thel asked.

She responded almost immediately, her hologram forming upon the pad. She had changed her colour again, being unable to settle on one. Today she had take on an orange palette, while yesterday she had been green.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Where's Cortana?" John asked.

Vala looked across the room at him. Her top two jaws tightened in a sign of resignation.

"Out." She muttered simply.

"How can an Artifical Intelligence be 'Out'?" Thel asked, somewhat impatient.

Vala's jaws twitched somewhat nervously.

"I don't know, It's what she is. She's not here." Vala replied.

"Where is she?" John asked, leaning back against his chair.

"I don't know." Vala said slowly. "I think she went down to Sidney."

John covered his face with a hand and muttered something under his breath.

"The admiral never said that we needed Cortana to view the files." Thel said, taking out the piece of paper that Walker had given him. "Perhaps Vala can do it."

John scratched his shaven chin slightly. "Maybe."

Thel read the sheet of paper.

"The incident at Gabriel Prime, February 19th, 2553."

Vala nodded her head upon hearing the date.

"I'll have a look." She said, and her holograph disappeared.

She was gone for about thirty seconds, and then she reappeared on the holographic pad. She seemed much happier upon her reappearance.

"I found some files on the incident. Do you want them printed out? I found a networked printer imbedded in this holopad." She asked.

John nodded. "Do it."

As the printer began to produce a page, Thel caught a glance at the squiggles and characters that made up the human langauge. This was too important to trust his, in all actuality dubious grasp of human written language. There was, in his opinion, way too many human written dialects.

There were three Sangheili written dialects and one spoken dialect that had survived the Covenant period of the Sangheili. Kharian, (The most common and generally used form of Sangheili) Wretpon, (Very much based on Forerunner dialect, which was greatly used by the prophets) and the final one, Paretu. (A nearly dead one used exclusively by the Northern Keeps on Sangheilios)

"Can I have one written in Sangheili Kharian?" He asked.

"Very well. I'll have one done in about twenty seconds." Vala responded.

Thel nodded his head and relaxed back on John's bed.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Unknown MRS Class Stealth Cruiser, Bridge, Unknown system, 1st of March, 2553._

"Our strength is gone." The prophet swallowed nervously.

 _Weak_. Kursnow snorted internally.

He stood in the communications station, facing a blue holograph of the prophet before him. He was alone with only his chieftain's garments to keep him company.

"Our fleet consists of less than thirty ships, and we've lost our main station. It disappeared mid-battle. Most undoubtedly dissenters. May they be left behind to rot on the Great Journey." He sighed, leaning against his throne. "I want you back here."

This new prophet had been forced to replace the now dead Minister of Clarity.

"I no longer believe your like... Duck hunt is no longer in our best of interests. I need every available ship."

Kursnow stood to his full height and face the prophet. He growled.

"I will not abandon my prize. I serve whom I respect. You do not command my respect. I will not follow you." He announced, ending with a lingering snarl.

The prophet retreated slightly, and then attempted to gather himself.

"I... I command you! If not, you shall be left behind on the Gr-" The Prophet shouted shrilly.

Kursnow finally uttered the words that he always wanted to say.

"Shut it with that claptrap. It's over. We have no power. There is no denying it, but the age of union is over. The Covenant is gone. It's time to adapt. Fair well."

The prophet swallowed again and backed up slowly. The Communication ended suddenly, rapidly darkening the room.

Kursnow turned and gave a growl of satisfaction. The door opened as the Jiralhanae approached. There was a single guard waiting, watching something on a screen on his wrist. The chieftain could sympathise; What was there to guard against on this ship?

But, tradition had to be maintained. Actually, he realised, no, it did not, any more. He was free to do as he wished.

"Having fun?" He asked.

The guard snorted and stood to attention roughly.

"I apologise, chieftain, It shall not happen again."

Kursnow nodded briskly, and then proceeded to the bridge. Their ship was nearly fully repaired, and Kursnow wanted to get back on the hunt.

But first, he had to make an announcement to his pack. He walked down the long purple corridors leading to the bridge. He saw no one else along the way. He reached the door, noticing little sound coming from the bridge. The double doors leading to the bridge opened as he approached.

The bridge was dark; Only a few station lights lit up the room. There was only a skeleton crew present.

"Greetings, Chieftain."

Kursnow glanced over to his second-in-command, now rising from the command chair.

"Greetings." He replied, taking his seat.

"Our repairs are nearly complete, but the main reactor still needs a shakedown. We can't go anywhere yet." The SIC told him.

The Chieftain raised a hand to ward him off.

"We do not need to go anywhere, yet." He grunted. "But I do need a internal broadcast, right now."

"As you command." One operator said, and tapped at a few holographic screens.

A faint beep was heard.

"You are on, Chieftain."

"Many thanks. Attention, All personnel. Attention." He called.

He took a deep breath and began his speech.

"I have just finished talking with the Covenant, and It fares gravely. A recent human attack has cost them everything; All their ships, stations and weapons." He paused to allow emphasis.

 _Time to weave my web of lies_. He thought grimly.

He shifted in his chair and exhaled slowly.

"The Humans and Sangheili surround them. They will perish before long. And we are too late to help them. The time in which it would take to get there is too much. So we have one last objective." He stood up, allowing himself to shout; Nothing filled Jiralhanae with resolution more than angry shouting. "We shall continue the hunt we have started! We shall find that ship we have traced for so long, and we shall avenge our fallen brothers! The blood of Sangheili and Humans will grant them their deserved peace!"

He settled back into his chair, closing his eyes to present the image of gathering himself to the Brutes present on the bridge.

"And then..." He trailed off again, blinked, and then resumed. Manipulating his pack mates through emotion and expression proved more tiring then he would have thought. "Our destiny shall be our own."

He slammed his arm on the armrest of his chair, signifying to the operator to end the message.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _Earth orbit, On board "Grace" Station, 1st of March, 2553._

The Spartan reread the report for the final time. He wanted to ensure that there were no gaps in his memory for this Court Martial. He had to prove that Spartans were capable of doing paperwork too.

It was not to convince Walker that he was capable of the role more so as it was to convince himself that he was capable of doing paperwork. While on the Infinity during the ride back to earth, he'd noticed that there were a new generation of Spartans on board. It had struck him then; Now that the human-covenant war was over, the use of the Spartan IIs was no longer as required; The new Spartans, while not as effective as the IIs, could be produced in much greater numbers.

John was around 43 now; he probably didn't have much longer active service left by now, and he knew he couldn't simply go back to civilian life; something he'd never experienced before, and he wanted to show he could go from fighting the battles to directing the people who did.

He turned his wandering thoughts back to the papers at hand. It went like this: Two former section 3 operatives were undercover in the Brave New Star insurrectionist group. They were of opposite genders, one named Karl Puril and the other Ester Resior.

During their time undercover, Karl had developed a gambling addiction and had gotten into debt with a brute chieftain. When the chieftain wanted his money back, the BNS group had abducted him to present to the chieftain for a fee in return. Ester had then ignored orders to sit tight and wait for backup to intercept, and had went after Karl almost immediately.

In her haste she had neglected several protocols, and as a result had blown her cover, despite rescuing Karl in the process. The Spartan gave a grim smile.

Satisfied, he got up and headed for the door, pausing at said for to check his uniform to ensure it was in suitable condition for a Court Martial.

He stepped out into the main corridor outside his quarters. Almost immediately he became aware of Thel coming down the corridor towards him. He nodded his head slightly in greeting.

The uniform that Thel had been given a very odd uniform in his eyes.

"It is time. We should hurry." Thel grunted simply.

John gave a brief nod of acknowledgment. The two headed towards the elevator at the end of the corridor. It was silent as the they ascended into the foyer where they'd met the admiral earlier.

He was waiting for them, along with a Jackal and a woman that John had never seen before. She wore a tightly fitted uniform that looked as though it was too small for her, and a line of straight cut brown hair, along with a rather plump build.

The Kig-yar on the other hand, was more interesting. He had a pair of scars visible across his neck, and he wore a uniform that had clearly been tailored for him. The most interesting part was that he was missing most of his right arm, along with most of the hair (I think that's what it is) on the back of his neck.

The three noticed the two approaching. Walker stood from his chair.

"Good!" He announced, clapping once. "That's everyone."

The Jackal nodded slightly. The woman gave a smile of greeting.

Walker pointed at the Kig-yar.

"This is General Shalin," he told them, then turned to the woman, "and this is Vice Admiral Tudra."

Tudra gave a light-hearted wave at the mention of her name.

"Now." Walker called. "I suppose you all know why you're here?"

Everyone gave a grunt of affirmative.

"Good." He said, and clapped his hands. "We're transferring over to Station BlackHawk, which is where the Court Martial will take place. Follow me, there's a ship waiting at hangar bay 4A-12."

He headed towards a door on the right side, and the four followed him. All were silent as they went through a dimly lit hallway, down two sets of stairs and through another two corridors to the right.

Finally, they arrived in said hangar. Personally, John had been expecting a pelican with a few escorts to be waiting for them. Instead, there was an entire luxury corvette waiting for them.

Tudra whistled.

"A luxury corvette? How much did you spend on hiring that." Tudra laughed.

"You know, only the best, for the best. This cost me way to much for the one trip. Which is why I'm going to 'donate' it to Margaret after this whole thing is over." Walker replied with a grin.

The comment made the Spartan think back to the other members of his squad. What were they doing right now? He hadn't heard anything about them since they had arrived at the station. He resolved to ask Thel about them if they got a chance during the trip on the corvette.

They all boarded the corvette through a ramp located on the left side of the ship. Walker led them to the bridge of the corvette, where an entire crew was standing by.

They stood to attention as they entered. John was surprised at the composition of the corvette's crew. Around half was human, and the other half consisted mostly of Sangheili and Jackals, although, he saw an Unggoy or two inside the crew as well. The group of officers took the five empty seats at the rear of the bridge, at the rest of the crew went back to their stations. Corvettes were not big ships, and at least half the crew actually stayed in the bridge.

There was silence in the bridge, then the ship's captain, a young man who only just seemed to have graduated stood up.

"All personnel are aboard, present and accounted for. Sent to control, Whirlwind is ready to depart." He ordered cooly.

"Request made and acknowledged." A Sangheili on the COMs announced. "Door control in thirty seconds."

"Very good." The captain said. "Preliminary checks."

"Engines standing by, zero to forty percent at your command." A Kig-yar croaked.

"Moorings, ready for clearance." Someone, a human, announced.

"Slipspace ready, if at all needed." Another human said.

The captain nodded briefly, seemed to mutter something to himself, and then stood to his full height.

"Full power to underside thrusters for get off. One meter hover once cleared. Detach moorings." He ordered cleanly.

There was a faint rumble from te underside of the ship, and the Whirlwind rose into the air. A faint clang was heard as the moorings fell away.

"Doors are ours." A jackal announced.

"Very well." The captain said. His face still remained as impassive as it had been this entire trip. The Spartan had to admit that he was impressed with the captains performance, especially if this was his first or second time in command.

"Reverse engines, seventy percent." Came the next order.

A muted grumble was heard as the rear engines came on and began to reverse the ship out of the hangar. The Chief watched as the wall slowly shrunk through the front viewscreen of the bridge.

It took about three minutes for the corvette to pull backwards out of the hangar. The corvette continued to reverse, however, in order to give itself some turning room, it continued to reverse for another thirty seconds or so. Then the main engines came to life with a rumble, and Whirlwind pulled itself over the hangar and began a slow circle around the top of Grace station.

At the rear back end of the station, there lay two frigates. Both of them had the configuration of the Spearhead, but one was substantially more complete.

One of them was obviously the Spearhead herself. She had the more flat Paris class designed upper and under carriages, while the rear leaned towards a more flat Charon class design.

The only work being done on her seemed to be on her undercarriage. They seemed to have made use of the empty space there, and were attaching something into the internals of it.

The other frigate there was mostly barebones, having had barely anything done to it as far as externals went. Her internals were all laid and in position, but the outer plating still had to be applied.

The corvette finally turned away to face deep space. The earth hung below the ship, just visible at the bottom of the viewscreen.

"ETA ten minutes to BlackHawk. Full engines, Nark." The captain ordered briskly.

"Yes, captain." The kig-yar croaked, and the rumbling increased in volume.

Several ODPs could be seen from here. The tri-clusters drifted by, and John even noticed some newer looking ODPs that seemed to be built from reddish covenant plating.

The Whirlwind cruised on for several minutes, until a large, back spot came into view. It was the BlackHawk station, made of three main sections joined together by relatively small tunnels. Little light came from the station. She seemed to hide using only the darkness of space. The Spartan guessed that it had some kind of cloaking system to hide from good spectrometers.

"Station BlackHawk, this is SFS Whirlwind. Requesting docking permission, we have command on board." The captain said, pressing a button for the ship's COM.

"Whirlwind, this is BlackHawk station. Can we have confirmation of command?" The station manager replied.

Walker stood up. The captain turned and nodded at the admiral.

"I can confirm. Command is aboard." Walker announced.

"Rodger. Reading Bio and voice confirm." The manger replied. "Whirlwind, you are clear for docking at port 16-A."

The corvette came around and slowed, presenting its side and preparing to dock. From the forward hull, occasional bursts of monopropellant could be seen as the Whirlwind lined herself up.

Finally, a little clang could be heard.

"We are docked." Someone announced.

Immediately, Walker stood.

"Same port as entry?" He asked.

The captain nodded. Walker gestured for the others to follow. They got up and did so. As they headed back down the way they had come, the size of the corvette really struck John. It was tiny. The two corridors they had walked was only twenty five or so meters, and they were connected by tiny bulkheads.

When they reached the airlock, the spartan's observation became apparent. The exterior of the station, even the airlock, was covered in Titaniun S, the variant of Titanium modified to be hard to detect, even without a cloaking system. He'd never seen so much of it in one place.

Walker led them through in a hurry. Surprisingly, the whole installation seemed not be guarded very heavily. Throughout their whole trip, which was around a kilometer of walking throughout the whole station, he saw less than fifteen guards.

"I would have expected more guards here." Tudra muttered.

"I would, except that it's proven difficult to find marines willing to work alongside aliens. It was the marines that went groundside during the war. They were the ones who did the fighting. They saw what the covenant did close up and personal. It's difficult to find those who will put that behind them. And that's what's necessary in Section Four. Willingness." Walker replied.

The walls of the station had progressively become worse looking as they continued on. In some places, whole plates were missing from the walls and wires hung forlornly.

"I haven't had time to do this place up. Margaret only had to give me a near two hundred year old station in disrepair." He sighed.

Finally, they entered a large chamber through a pair a automatic double doors. This chamber had at least twenty guards waiting inside. A large skywalk couldbe seen above the chamber. There was a large window, pointing directly at earth.

"Here we are." Walker grunted.

One guard walked over to them and saluted.

"Sirs and Madams," He said, somewhat stumbling over his words. "Follow me to the conference room."

He turned and led them to another room, which in turn led to a hallway. From this hallway, they ended up outside the door for the conference room.

"That's your side, I have to go now." The marine finished quickly.

"We done walking yet, Walker?" Tudra asked. "My legs are killing me."

"We're here." Walker confirmed, checking his uniform for any creases. "Sorry about the long walk. I'll have an internal elevator installed next time."

They all went into the room. What immediately stuck John was the layout of the room. There was a single long, curved table with five chairs at the ready. Each chair had the names of those intended to sit at it attached to be the back.

In front of the table, there was a large lowered chamber. Spotlights were placed at strategic pointed so that the prosecutors faces were obscured, while the accused were not.

They took their seats. Interestingly, there was a tablet built into each table, so the prosecutors could review facts during the court martial.

That rendered his careful study unnecessary. He could help but feel a bit annoyed by that. But looking back, be realised that the higher ups in ONI had better things to do than learn their cases off by heart.

Thel was sitting to his right, Walker on his left, in the middle of the group. The other two sat on the other side of Walker.

"Everyone ready?" Walker asked.

Everyone gave grunts of affirmative.

"Alright," Walker tapped his tablet a couple of times, then straightened himself. "Here we go."

On the other side of the room, a pair of double doors slid open, revealing two people being escorted into the room by a group of four marines.

They were brought to the centre of the room. The marines then turned and dispersed to the edge of the lights, waiting just out of sight in the event they were needed.

John could clearly see the two before them. One of them was a tall, dark-haired man clearly of Russian decent. The looked rather strongly built, except for his casted left leg.

The woman was tall and stiff, and had short hair that was dyed with a mixture of dark hair and blonde. Her face was pronounced in the places that confirmed that she was a heavy makeup user. Yet, there was still a certain hardness in her eyes that would have made many unease.

Ester Resior swept her eyes across the prosecutors before them, looking her gaze on each individually. The Spartan met her gaze and returned his own. She quickly turned away to face Walker.

John looked down at the tablet that was part of his section of the table. It was sitting blanking at a start screen. He told it to find files relating to these two and put it on a folder on the desktop for him.

It complied and gave him a five minute wait time for his command. He looked back up at the two.

"This Court Martial is now in session. Karl Puril and Ester Resior. Is that correct?" Admiral Walker asked.

The two gave a nod of affirmative.

"You were stationed on Gabriel Prime during the month of February of 2553. Is that correct?" Walker continued.

"Yes." Karl said, but Ester was silent.

"Miss Resior?"

"Yes. That is correct." She snarled.

"You were monitoring the Brave New Star insurrectionist group, is that correct?"

"What are you after?" Ester growled. "You already know all this. You have it on file."

"For the record, Miss Resior. Answer the question." Walker replied.

"We both were." Karl answered.

"On Feburary 22nd, 2553 Military calendar, you were, Mr. Puril, captured by a covenant splinter faction interacting with the Brave New Star insurrectionist group, the leader of which you racked up a debt with."

Karl nodded slightly at that, but Walker didn't stop because of that.

"Do you believe that your cover was intact when he presented you to the BNS group?" He concluded.

Karl swallowed and put on a fake smile.

"Yes, I do. I was treated no differently from the other human prisoners of the Covenant. The BNS group was allowed to punish their own species, and in return they presented all other beings that they captured on the run from said splinter faction to the faction." Karl explained.

"Why were you in debt in the first place?" Tudra snapped. "ONI provided you with 75,000 credits to start off. The estimated cost of your mission up until that point should have been 20,000 credits. Why were you broke at that point?"

"Well, I-" Karl stammered, but Thel cut him off.

"According to Resior's log, she expressed concern at you gambling away most of the allocated fund. She mentions how you have "expended" 45,000 credits at that point. This log was made a week before the incident." He informed them.

Karl shifted nervously, turning towards Ester with a expression of Horror.

The Spartan navigated the files before him and loaded up Karl's own logs.

"You also failed to mention how you spend this fund in your own sitreps and logs." He explained as he speed-read through a collection of Karl's logs. "Which falls against regulation Seventeen point Eleven Twelve."

"Can we have a confirmation, for the record, of regulation Seventeen point Eleven Twelve?" The Jackal asked.

"Certainly." Walker said briskly. "Regulation Seventeen point Eleven Twelve. All, if any, large transactions regarding the provided fund totalling more than two thousand five hundred credits (Or total combined expenditures on the same product over the course of a week) must be sanctioned by the commanding officer of the agent/agents in participation of the mission."

Karl seemed to step back, shrinking as he did so. He was caught now, and he knew it.

Ester turned her head towards him sadly, and then turned back. The silence painted the clear picture that he had violated the regulation.

"Miss Resior, you reported that Mr. Puril had been captured by a covenant splinter faction. Your transmission was received by the orbiting support ship; the UNSC Thunderclap. They replied with code Eleven A." Walker continued.

"Once again, sorry." The Kig-yar began, "Can we have a confirmation of code Eleven A?"

"Code Eleven A is the code for ONI agents to hold position and wait, as reinforcements are on the way." John replied.

Code Eleven A was one he had heard several times during the war. Often times, he and his team of Spartans had been those reinforcements.

"Many thanks." Walker said, And searched quickly through his documents on his tablet.

"You did not wait, however." Thel said quietly. "Reading from you weapons tags, you were on the move towards a point you knew they would they would meet up."

"Another violation of regulation;" Walker sighed quietly. "Carry on."

The Sangheili turned and considered, and then continued.

"And still, you managed to retrieve your comrade." Thel growled.

Ester looked up at him silently.

"You were discovered, though. You left several pieces of evidence behind. The Brave New Star group is now aware of our... Involvement." The Sangheili continued.

"What proof of there is that?" Karl asked, taking a step forward and standing upright.

"Several intercepted COMs from the BNS and their local splinter faction." Walker answered, face hard. "I will play one now, while the rest will be added to the file on this case."

A low murmur of affirmative swept across the prosecutors.

"Open your ears, and pay attention." Walker growled, and started the message.

"Recording fifty-three of the UNSC Thunderclap, Brave New Star insurrectionist group to local Covenant Splinter faction. Unknown sender and recipient." The UNSC logger stated in a bored voice.

Loggers were required to denote these things at the start of anything recorded by ONI for compartmentalising. Of course, during the war, there had been little need for things like that.

"I am busy. Why do you contact me?" A deep voice, presumably a Sangheili or Jiralhanae, growled.

"You haven't heard anything of our runner since yesterday?" Someone questioned, probably human.

"I have seen evidence, but no actual flesh. I believe the theories that these two were spies." The Brute/Elite muttered.

"The whole thing reeks of the Galactic Alliance, no?" The human replied.

"Yes. It is most fortunate that this turn of events conspired for us. I only fear how much they now know." The Brute/Elite sighed.

"If you find them, my commanders have given me the all-clear to tell you that if you find these traitors- or spies in whatever case, you are clear to execute them as you wish. In fact, my commanders would like this done as quickly as possible." The human said plainly.

A growl of pleasure from the Brute/Elite.

"It shall be done."

"Good."

The message ended with a pop.

There was silence. Ester and Karl stared at each other briefly. They were both screwed, and they knew it. The interrogation was over; the verdict came next.

"Can everyone please submit the evidence that they personally reviewed to the case folder, please?" Walker suddenly asked. "I will then give you all five minutes of deliberation, and then the verdict will be declared."

The group complied. John saw everyone tapping away at the tablets embedded in the tables, while the two below watched helplessly.

The Spartan had a lot to put into this file; a pure consequence of his will to succeed. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he hadn't needed half of it.

He was unsure how to feel about that. Perhaps he wasn't ready for a paperwork job yet. He swallowed and finished packing the files he'd used for research into his given folder.

The others finished at roughly the same time. As the files were packed away and proceedings finished up, a new prompt appeared on the screen;

Verdict?

There were three options;

Guilty, Not guilty and unable to decide at this moment.

The Chief thought about it. The choice was simple; the Spartan knew what the answer was. He pressed Guilty. A running toll from all five of them showed up; four guiltys to one cannot decide.

"Verdict delivered. This session finds Karl Puril and Ester Resior Guilty of breaking several regulations and destroying the six years in the making setup infiltrating the Brave New Star Insurrectionist group. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?" Walker announced.

The two were silent.

"As the highest ranking officer here, I reserve the ability to decide punisement. You will both be given a one rank demotion." Walker's face was hard now. "And I also sentence you to six months... In Midnight facility."

Karl and Ester paled. Even as their escorts moved in to bring them out, they looked visibly shaken by the sentence. Out of the corner of his eye, John spotted Thel casting him a glance, curiousity of what Midnight Facility was written on his face.

John hadn't realised how much he'd grown to understand the Sangheili's facial expressions. He watched as the two were escorted wordlessly from the room. Walker stood up.

"Session closed." He announced. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen."

The rest got up as well. The Court Martial was over. It was certainly an experience, the Chief mused.

"Chief, Shipmaster," Walker called over to the two.

They turned.

"What is it, sir?" John asked.

"I just received word from Grace." He said. "Your ship will be ready to set said for tomorrow."

Thel bowed his head. "Many thanks." The Sangheili said.

"I have a new mission for the Squad." He continued.

John and Thel glanced at each other briefly.

"What is it?" The Spartan asked.

"I will have files sent to you directly on your ship, but in layman's terms," Walker said slowly. "But here it is; You're going to destroy the BNS group and the splinter cell with them."

 **I+-+-+I**

 **I don't know much about how Court Martials in real life: But anyway, It's a SECRET agency five hundred years in the future. Doesn't have to be accurate: Times change, eh?**


	19. Chapter 18: Refitted and away again

**Oh my goodness. It's been nearly a month since I updated. So much for frequent updates. Yay. The worst part is, unfortunately, that I have nothing witty or clever to say about this. So, Uh… Enjoy the next chapter, I know you guys were asking for updates, so yeah…**

 **I'm so awkward when it comes to things like this. I've been waiting a LONG time to get this story arc on the road (beginning of the year or a little bit before I think…), and by the end of this chapter, you'll see why.**

 **Chapter 18: Refitted and Away again.**

 _Earth orbit, On board "Grace" Station, 2nd of March, 2553._

At long last, The Squad was back on board the _Spearhead_. Or at least, they would be. Zhab and Jimaenius, along with the Lekgolo and the grunts, were waiting in one of the hangar bays aboard the human repair station.

Zhab was personally tired of Liyik and Limid for now. All of the crew had taken turns watching the Unggoy; but Zhab had had to the most, seeing as both the shipmaster and the human had been swallowed up by other duties for a few days during their stay.

The years that Zhab had spent hiding also left him with some instinctual feelings. He didn't like staying in the same place for a long time, unless it was a ship. Years spent running from those you'd pissed off did that to you.

There was no conversation during the wait. Zhab merely swept his eyes across the hangar again. They were in a sealed elevated overviewing room. A single human ship, which they called a pelican, was awaiting them in the hangar below. The walls and ceiling was all made up of the ever-so dull human grey.

The _Spearhead_ , in fairness to her, had so much more natural and diverse sections. Zhab yawned.

A pair of double doors behind the group opened, admitting the shipmaster. He was dressed in a clean, darkish-red uniform that seemed to be both a mix of both human and Sangheili tailoring. It suited him, in Zhab's humble opinion.

"Greetings." He stated.

Everyone else turned to face him. He parted his jaws slightly and tilted his head downwards towards the last remaining pelican in the hangar below.

"Everything is ready. Come along." He announced.

The Squad arose. They followed the Sangheili down a collection of stairwells and out into the open space of the hangar. A few armed humans were standing on guard duty, but none batted their eyes at the strange congregation.

The Spartan stood by their pelican. The rear bay door of the transport was down. He gestured for them to get on board of the vehicle. With a giggle, Liyik and Limid spurted ahead and scrambled aboard. Zhab reached the pelican and stopped for a second to examine the interior; It was thin. Zhab assumed that most of what made up the interior, such as compartments, and storage cases had been removed from the transport to allow for larger loads to be transported.

Zhab clambered on board the pelican, followed by the Shipmaster and the Spartan. He quickly shepherded the two Unggoy into restraining harnesses. Jimaenius climbed on board the pelican and took a seat as well.

The Lekgolo finally climbed on, their combined weight causing the transport to sag slightly. They removed some of the plates from their bodies and shifted them in order to fit into the seats.

The Sangheili and Human clambered into the front compartment of the pelican. Zhab poked his head in the doorway behind them. The Spartan sat down on the forward seat of the vehicle, while the Sangheili took a seat on the higher up rear seat.

"How long should this take?" Zhab asked, purely to ask a question as not to appear as though he was staring at the two.

He winced internally. It was a petty question in his own eyes. His pride deflated a notch.

"The _Spearhead_ is anchored at the Grace station, which is the station we are currently anchored to." The human AI answered over the COM.

"Head a hundred meters out and then pull back full and turn over, then proceed two and a half kilometers to the _Spearhead_ and dock." The Sangheili AI immediately interjected.

Zhab nodded his head in acknowledgement and pulled backwards into the rear compartment and took a seat of his own.

The doors of the pelican slid upwards and closed. The engines kicked on with a faint rumble, and the downward force of gravity increased. The dropship lifted off.

Suddenly, there was a bang from outside the ship, and it accelerated violently, forcing all in the rear compartment to shift towards the rear end of dropship.

"What on Diosac?" Jimaenius muttered as he readjusted the strap around him.

"They musta vented atmosphere as we came out." Zhab concluded. "Nice way to get a bit of free speed."

He felt the acceleration force change to put full pressure onto the floor. They were now ascending, and he felt the craft rotate as it did so.

The violent trip then steadied, and the craft came back along the path they had come, only higher.

"We are now on course for our ship." The human AI announced. "If anyone wants to get a good look at it, have a peek from the cockpit."

Zhab glanced across to see the Lekgolo detaching themselves from their seats, and Jimaenius now standing as well. Zhab decided he would take the opportunity and have a look as well.

The Lekgolo modified their bodies so that only their heads peeked in through the door, while Jimaenius and Zhab squeezed in below them.

Zhab immediately noticed their ship directly ahead. He blinked. It was still the same ship, although several modifications had been made to it.

The armor plates had been retrofitted; instead of several different plates, there were only two colours. Dark grey and light grey. The colours were neatly intermixed with the frigate and did add some artistic value to the ship. Something Zhab had never really seen, as covenant ships were all generally purple, purple and nothing but. The colours were divided nearly into their own strips and sections that were restricted to their given area instead of being all mixed together.

The ship's hull had been remodelled somewhat; the human designed ships maintained their mostly flat designs, in fact, _the Spearhead_ 's had been flattened out in most places. The bump that was usually located on the front end of the human frigates was now a rectangle slapped on top the main forward carriages of the ship, as opposed to its original more curvy and smoother integration.

The forward side extending compartments were also now squared off. On the upper and under side of them rested a collection of turrets, two per side.

Zhab noticed a collection of eight turrets on the rear section of the frigate. Obviously the engine quarter had been redone.

One of the Lekgolo snarled.

"What have they done to our ship?" He growled.

"I'll have a full list of modifications waiting for you all when you get on board." The human AI reported.

"Thank you, Cortana." The Spartan replied.

The pelican shifted and redirected, sweeping under the right forward compartment.

"Established system link." The Sangheili AI reported. "Opening hangar doors."

They twisted and pulled backwards and fell into the hangar. They slowed immediately and came to a graceful halt and settled.

Zhab examined the hangar. Their vehicle supply had been restored; and the fighter that they'd lost back during their mission to that remnant base had been replaced.

They piled out of the pelican and headed to the lift to the bridge. The lift couldn't hold the Lekgolo as well as the rest, so they went on the second lift. They didn't head to the bridge.

Zhab figured that they must have stopped in the engineering section.

The bridge had been redone. There were two holographic tables about two meters away from the command chair, on opposite sides. There was an array of consoles and chairs around the holotables.

The human and Sangheili AIs were standing at the holotable to the right, waiting for the group as they entered the bridge.

"All systems have been approved and retrofitted. Reactor is in Zeta shakedown; ready in three to five minutes." The Human AI reported.

"Thank you, Cortana." The Shipmaster replied. "How long will it take to bring the engines online?"

"I'd rather wait until the reactor was ready, but we can go now if necessary." The Human AI explained.

"Very well, We'll wait." The Shipmaster nodded.

"Do you have the Admiral's message on our mission?" The Spartan asked.

Zhab sighed slightly. They already had a new mission? He'd personally hoped for some time to adjust to the new ship.

"One message from Admiral Walker in record; Playing now." The Sangheili AI announced.

A screen rose from the holotable and the Admiral's face appeared on it.

"Hello and greetings once again. As some of you may know, but for those that, however know, I will explain." The human said slowly and quietly.

"A human separatist faction and a covenant remnant force have been working in cooperation in a system known as Gabriel Prime."

He paused. A new set of holographs appeared beside him. It swirled into a star system. There were six planets. The one second closest from the star was highlighted red, and several red points swirling above it.

"We currently have a scout ship, the _Thunderclap_ , in the system." The Admiral explained.

The second planet was zoomed up on, showing the red points in greater detail.

"This is their main planet of operations. You can see several orbital stations and their ground base. Your main mission is simple; rendezvous with the _Thunderclap_ , gather intel and destroy both factions." He concluded. "Good luck."

The holographs faded into darkness. All that remained were the two AIs.

"Shakedown is complete, Shipmaster." The Sangheili AI reported.

"Very well." The Shipmaster grunted. "Care to take a seat, anyone?"

A general grunt of compliance was heard, and the Squad took their seats. Zhab watched through the from forward viewscreen as the repair and refit ships around the _Spearhead_ turned away and scattered into space.

"Cortana?" The Sangheili asked.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Release moorings." He ordered, shifting himself backwards in his chair.

"Aye. Moorings released." The AI responded.

A muted gasp reverberated through the hull and several pieces of metal retracted from the hull.

"Give a us five upward puffs with the manoeuvring thrusters. Half second bursts." He continued, his voice conversal. This must have been like getting dressed for him.

There was a collection of hisses for five or so seconds, and the ship began to slowly rise towards the curved bars around the station.

The repair station had a central runway for ships too long to be docked on the external pads. A collection of bars ran over this dock to prevent the ship from drifting away if it accidentally detached.

"We are now clear of obstructions directly ahead." The Sangheili AI announced.

"Cancel our upward velocity. Long puff. Go." The Sangheili ordered calmly.

There were several white flashes across the forward hull, and the _Spearhead_ 's slow rise halted.

"Reroute power to main engines. Give me Fifty percent forward power."

A rumble reverberated through the hull. The bars began to slowly slip behind the top of the viewscreen. Guidance lights flashed on the runway ahead as the _Spearhead_ picked up speed. It took about half a minute to reach the end of the runway.

"Line us up with the Gabriel Prime system, Full power to Slipspace drive." The commander interjected.

The Sangheili cast him a slight glance back, but said nothing back as the AIs complied with the order.

Light began to flicker against the shields of the _Spearhead_ as it pulled backwards to line up.

"Stand by to slipspace." The human AI announced.

The light suddenly stretched and expanded. A black hole appeared dead ahead and the _Spearhead_ drove into the darkness.

"Jump complete." The Sangheili AI reported. "ETA four hours, however the Crystal dilation may escalate. Expect a sooner arrival."

Jimaenius cleared his throat.

"Will we be seeing those... um... Informants was it? Again?" He asked quietly.

The Spartan and Shipmaster both cast glances at each other.

"Possibly." The commander said. "Although probably not for a while though."

"Ah." The Jiralhanae exhaled.

A silence fell over the bridge for several seconds. Zhab glanced lift and right, and then stood.

"Anyone up for a game of cards in the common room?" He asked.

Jimaenius grunted an affirmative and rose aswell. Zhab turned to the shipmaster and the commander.

"We have some work to catch up on." The Sangheili told him. "We may join you all later, however."

Zhab nodded in adknowledgement. Knowing that the shipmaster and the commander had work to do, he snapped his fingers, and the Unggoy rose to follow him as they always did.

He'd keep them in the common room where they'd not be of any bother to them. The four crouded into the lift and descended.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC_ Spearhead of Dawn _Bridge, Somewhere in Slipspace, 2nd of March, 2553._

Thel and John watched the four leave. As the lift doors closed, Thel spun his chair back around to face the holotable and stood up.

"Cortana, Vala," He began. "I'd like a rundown of the modifications that Walker made to our ship while we were docked."

The two AI nodded. Cortana pulled up a holograph of the ship.

"The hull has been redesigned with hard geometry sectors. Our hull integrity has been increased by about five percent due to that. Unused sectors have also been turned into blast cocoon sections." Cortana explained, highlighting several areas on the ship.

"The majority of the external hull has been replaced with a new UNSC Covenant hull solution, Increasing the strength of the hull by about 25 percent." Vala continued.

"All of our reactors have been repaired and restored. We now have full power available, with 300 percent boost for fifteen minutes available." Cortana interjected.

She brought up a new holograph of that section of the ship. The reactors had been completely redone. Gone was the mostly unfinished look open reactors with pipes and wires expanding and leading freely where they will, in their place was a central structure that the reactors were built inside.

"The engineering section has been given several overhauls and covers." Vala explained. "You see the new covering for the reactors. I'll also have you know that there is now a laser ion cooling system installed."

"How does that work?" Thel asked, unfamiliar with human cooling systems.

"Essentially, It uses cooled Ions to cool the reactor instead of venting the coolant to space. The more power we use, the cooler it gets. Extremely efficient." Cortana explained. "The Pillar of Autumn used that system."

"There were a few upgrades to the weapons systems." Vala continued.

"What did they do?" John asked quietly, approaching the table as well.

"The main upgrade, In my opinion," Vala said, "Is the fitting of a class-S energy projector to the undercarriage."

Thel mentally flipped through his memory to find what a class-S energy projector was meant to do. During the covenant, the job energy projectors were meant for were decided by their name. The class-G, for example, was meant purely for glassing, while the class-E was for excavation, and the class-S was for using against enemy ships.

"Not bad." He muttered.

"The weapons has a 120 degree firing cone from the undercarriage. Base charge at six point five percent reactor power gives us a one and a half minute charge." Cortana elaborated. "The maximum effect range is 20 million kilometers, although you will have to lead to consider the light barrier. It fires a continuous eight second beam."

A cone appeared to show the ship's firing range. Thel liked what he saw. The energy projector would require less maneouvring than the SMAC, although it probably would need to focus on a target for a while in order to do the same deal of damage.

"On top of that, Our Octagon AAA guns have been improved." Vala announced. "They now have three types of ammunition. Type-1 rounds are your standard Helix batteries shots, albeit more powerful explosive-wise, and three kilometers per second faster projectile speed on average."

"Type-2 rounds are Helix shots, except with plasma charge capillaries. Better at shield penetration, but lack the explosive power of the Type-1s." Cortana picked up. "Finally, we have the Type-3s, which have been dubbed the Splaser rounds by the core. They fire rounds similar to the Spartan laser, except they have the power to take out a seraph in one shot. Maximum range is about two million kilometers, but seraph destroying power is limited to about one million."

John looked impressed. Thel was also impressed with these new weapons systems. This would give him plenty more ways to fight, and given their new mission, he felt that he'd need that.

He sat back down in his chair and turned to face the forward viewscreen.

"Time to destination?" He asked.

"One and a half minutes." Vala immediately replied.

"Where should we be arriving?" John asked, taking a seat for himself on the other side of he holotable.

"About 500 or so kilometers or so from the last recorded position of the UNSC _Thunderclap_." Cortana replied.

Slipspace suddenly distorted, and then began to fill with stars.

"We have cleared slipspace." Vala announced. "Running area scans."

"Building intrasystem network. ETA one minute three seconds." Cortana added, and brought up a holograph of the system.

Several red points appeared scattered throughout the system. A huge, almost swarmlike presence was detected around the planet that had been shown to be the headquarters of the Splinter faction and the Insurrection.

"Where's the _Thunderclap_?" Thel asked.

Space around them was dark and starry. They were nowhere near any planets, in a seemly random point of space. Perhaps the Covenant patrols had forced them to move.

"I'm picking up weak telemetry coming from a source about twenty thousand kilometers away." Vala announced.

"I ran a profile scan of the source." Cortana added almost immediately.

"What is it?" The Spartan asked.

"It appears to be the _Thunderclap_." She answered. "I'm reading several hull deformities that seem to indicate a recent attack."

"The telemetry has just focused on the ship." Vala noted. "I'm reading a communication band."

"Let it play." Thel ordered quietly, sitting forward in his chair.

Static immediately washed over the bride. Thel's hearing, as all Sangheili hearing was, was not great. He tried, but failed to decipher anything in the grainy mix.

"Cortana," He asked. "Can you get anything from that?"

"I'll try to improve the quality, although the system seems to be low on transmission power. I can move the ship closer to improve the signal."

"Do it." He growled.

"Aye. Answering thirty percent binaries and coming about on direct course." Cortana announced.

Thrusters flared, and the main engines roared to life. The hull rumbled as the ship began to close the distance.

A holograph of the _Thunderclap_ appeared. The curved superstructure of the ONI prowled was servilely twisted and melted in places. Two large holes from plasma torpedoes could been seen smashed clean through the ship, and it spun slightly from the force of those impacts.

"Ninety thousand kilometers." Vala announced.

The static had, by this point, somewhat lessened; Thel swore he could hear voices deep within the grain, although he couldn't really confirm that.

The ship was directly ahead now, nearly invisible to the void of space. A thought struck Thel. Deep in covenant territory, and they come across a ship they were meant to meet, derelict and transmitting a faint, illegible message in hopes of drawing them in. Perfect setting for an ambush.

And while it seemed unlikely, Thel couldn't take that chance.

"Slow to three thirds current power and bring weapons systems online." He growled.

John glanced across at him. Thel looked back briefly before standing and turning his attention to the tactical holograph displayed directly on the table. It had been shrunk to he point where it barely encompassed the two ships; about a hundred thousand kilometers squared. No additional ships were in this radius.

The engines quietened slightly and the Octagon gun rose from their birthings and began their standardised area sweep, checking for hostiles.

"I'm not reading any hostile ships within the immediate area; sixty thousand kilometers out." Cortana informed the pair.

"I'm starting to not like this;" Thel growled. "The odds of us finding the ship we were meant to rendezvous with derelict in a hostile system are way too low; unless something deeper is inside Section Four..."

He met John's eyes again, and for a brief second, he saw actual fear in them. He didn't often see the Spartan's face, most of the time that they were in combat it was obsured by his helmet.

But from what he know, if something rattled the Spartan off the battlefield, then that was scary indeed. And it was true, if there was a mole in Section Four, the implications of that could be very dangerous for all of them.

"Forty thousand kilometers." Cortana announced.

The static played again, this time with concrete points where the volume of the grains held or increased slightly.

"Anything?" He asked.

"A little closer and we should." Cortana replied.

They closed to thirty thousand kilometers. The Static quietened slightly, although nothing could be made out on Thel's end, just detected.

"Got them." Cortana suddenly blurted.

Thel cursed his hearing internally; he still couldn't make anything out of the grain.

"Can you relay it to me?" He conceded.

He hated appearing dependent on someone for something so basic as hearing, but given the possible gravity of the situation, His pride would probably have to take a hit.

"Aye." Vala and Cortana both replied.

"This is the UNSC _Thunderclap_ , do you read? We're on emergency power and have major casualties. Request immediate assistance." Cortana repeated.

Thel grunted and stood.

"Can they hear us?" He asked.

"They should." Cortana guessed.

"Very well." He sighed. " _Thunderclap_ , this is the UNSC _Spearhead_ _of Dawn_ approaching you. We read you, albeit not clearly, but we hear you nevertheless. What happened?"

" _Spearhead of Dawn_..." Cortana repeated. "Our cloaking system failed for some reason and a Covvie patrol noticed us. We don't have any serious amounts of weapons. They probably would have destroyed us, but try were distracted by something. Our scanners think it was another UNSC ship."

Thel tilted his head at that statement.

"Another ship? Vala, can you scan for it?" He asked.

"Yes, I can. Doing that right now. Standby." She replied.

"Do you have a hangar, _Thunderclap_?"

"No, we don't. We're merely a small recon prowler. There were about fifty on board initially. Now there's only twenty." Cortana repeated.

They'd now reached a distance where Thel himself could understand the static. Without being asked Cortana stopped the repetition.

"Do you have an intact hardpoint?" John asked from across he holotable.

"Yes, _Spearhead_." Came a weak crackle through the static. "We have a single accessible intact hardpoint for docking."

"Good." Thel grunted. "Cortana, bring us about and move to dock. Keep our weapons up."

"Make it snappy, _Spearhead_." Crackled the captain of the prowler. "Our life support only has about ten minutes left."

"I'm detecting a UNSC ship across the system." Vala interrupted. "It appears to be UNSC Phoenix class colony ship."

"Have you found the registry number?" The Spartan asked.

"No..." Vala replied slowly. "This ship's registry seems to have been completely wiped from the UNSC records."

Thel closed his eyes and growled quietly. More complications.

"But the immediate fact is, the covenant remnants are converging on this ship with all available ships." Cortana noted.

"There are no major power readings coming from the ship. It seems to be completely dormant." Vala informed them.

"The crew must be in cryo." John grunted, examining the holograph that had been drawn up on the holotable.

"The ship is coming into GA space, however, not coming in." Vala explained. "It lacks the energy flares suggesting it's been in slipspace. It must have been drifting for several years."

The _Spearhead_ 's engines suddenly stopped; the thrusters came to life and began the slow task of aligning the two hardpoints.

"Let's talk about this later." Cortana interjected. "The Covenant fleet appears to not be using slipspace to reach the ship. I don't know why, but that gives us twenty minutes to make a plan. Let's save the crew of the _Thunderclap_ first."

Thel nodded in agreement. He snapped his jaws impatiently as the two ships latched together. He couldn't help but feel like this was going to be a long day.

 **I+-+-+I**

 **I wonder what the lost colony ship could possible be… (Insert Lenny Face here)**

 **Yeah, this was a part of the plan all along. I'm really looking forward to writing the next chapters in the future. Anyway, guys, please R &R, and thank you for nearly 10k reads and 44 favs. It's amazing.**


	20. Chapter 19: A Rude Awakening

**How long has it been since I updated? Surely it's just- Oh… Oh dear… Oh dear…**

 **Well, thanks for all the support you guys have given this in the mean time. (I'm kinda almost feeling afraid of uploading these, I feel like some parts of this sotry aren't up to my standard…)**

 **I've been on this chapter for months at this stage, always not finishing it or getting distracted before I can finish it. Feh. Here it is. (With luck the next part won't be a long coming)**

 **Also, this Story is now over a year old… Wow… How time flies.**

 **Chapter 19: A Rude awakening.**

 ** _(Dat cliché title doe)_**

 _UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, Cargo bay E, March 2nd, 2553._

Thunderclap's crew was deceptively small. Only twenty operatives crowded into one of the frigate's smaller bays.

About half of the prowler's crew had injures, and they would have to be moved to the infirmary. The Spearhead had the capacity for a hundred and fifty eight personnel, so this extra twenty hardly made a difference.

John watched the crew climb through the docking port, along with Jimaenius and Zhab, into the small hangar bay. The crew didn't bat their eyes upon seeing the Jackal and the Brute. They just kept on going and eventfully sat down wherever they could. The captain of the prowler was last on board.

He was dressed in a darker captain's uniform, which had several burns dotted across it. His face was long and forlorn, but his eyes still had life in them, unlike most of his crew. You could tell the state of the crew by the fact that no one saluted of even called out his presence. Only a handful of the Thunderclap's crew even glanced the captain's way as he entered.

Behind him, the dual doors of the airlock sealed, and there was a loud clack, followed immediately by a faint grinding as the connecting bridge retracted.

"We have detached from the Thunderclap." Cortana announced.

The captain of the ship inspected his crew across the hangar before approaching the Chief. It was stunning for the Spartan to think that he actually outranked the captain, who technically stood at just below him. He immediately banished those thoughts from his head. He was a professional soldier, not a rank obsessed one. He shouldn't be focusing on those ranks, just on their ability to allow him carry out his orders. Plenty of time for reflection during retirement- or at least when he wasn't serving in active front line duty any more.

"Are you the commanding officer of this ship?" The captain asked.

"No." The Spartan replied, "I am second in command, however, captain."

The captain nodded. "Send my thanks to your captain. Also, can I request permission to take my crew to your infirmary?"

John nodded. "Granted."

The Spartan turned back to Zhab and Jimaenius.

"Help the captain take his injured crew to the infirmary." He ordered.

They both nodded in sequence at the order and moved forward, stepping around him. The Chief turned to watch the two working alongside to the Thunderclap's crew.

The would never had expected to ever see something like this half a year ago, and yet now it seemed almost normal to him.

Suddenly his earpiece came to life:

"Chief, you are requested on the bridge." Cortana said.

He pressed his finger into the earpiece.

"On my way." He reported, turning towards the main exit of the hangar bay.

The bridge was around one third of the ship's length away. The doorway led onto a long central corridor, three decks down from the bridge. UNSC ships rarely had horizontal elevators unless they were more than a kilometer long.

As a result, any smaller ships tended to have a central corridor with main rooms along the sides. At least, that's how it was for the upper and under carriage of the Spearhead.

It took the Spartan about four minutes to reach the bridge. As he reached the top floor, he became aware that the bridge was mostly silent.

Normally, there would have been some sounds from various stations or consoles, but now it was silent. The lift doors slid open, and the Spartan crossed onto the bridge.

"Reporting as requested." The Chief announced.

Thel was standing at the holotable, staring hard at a collection of coloured dots. He glanced up and John and gave him a nod of greeting.

"Good to have you." He replied.

Cortana materialized on the table.

"We're monitoring a UNSC Phoenix class colony ship drifting in system. It's attracted local Covenant and insurrectionist interest. From what we've monitored from their COMs, they seem to be preparing to board the ship."

The Spartan crossed the room and stood up beside the holotable. What struck him immediately was the combination of Insurrectionist and covenant frigates clustering around the ship.

"The ship hasn't been active in 21 years, according to my records. At their current speed, they've crossed four point one light years in that time." Cortana stated. "I'm having difficulty finding its registry in the records. Someone up high tried REALLY hard to get rid of all traces of this ship."

"Are there any signs of life aboard the ship?" The Spartan asked.

"There are a large compliment of cryo pods operating at standard capacity, although no life signs."

The Spartan examined the pinpricks of light.

"Are we going to help them?" He asked, understanding the risks.

He knew that it was risky, stupidly risky, but all the same, something inside him made him really want to go and help the crew.

But then again, they had no idea if the crew were even alive.

"The ship will cross sphere of Influence of an ice giant in ten minutes. It'll come within two hundred thousand kilometers from the planet a closest approach." The Shipmaster noted. "We could intercept it there."

The holotable pulled up a system map, projecting the colony ship's path past the planet.

The Spartan considered it, but still one thing nagged him.

"What about the covenant?" The chief asked.

"The local insurrectionists want parts from the ship, so the covenant won't destroy it." Cortana explained simply. "And they won't have finished searching the ship for a least half an hour."

John looked across at Thel. The Sangheili appeared deep in thought, his bottom left jaw occasionally twitching.

"Cortana." He finally muttered. "Open a ship-wide channel."

"Aye. Channel open." She replied, and there was a faint beep.

The Sangheili stepped forward and made a strange sound that sounded like a mix of both coughing and sneezing at the same time. It took the Spartan a second to realise that it was the Sangheili clearing his throat.

"All combat ready personnel..." The shipmaster began. "Arm up and report to the hangar and be ready for possible combat departure."

He turned to face Cortana.

"Cortana, close channel." He ordered.

A deeper click finished the message.

"Find us a place in system to hide that will be within proximity of the ship." The shipmaster concluded. "And jump to the system."

Cortana hesitated for a second; then she gave an affirmative.

The engines of the Spearhead roared to life, the frigate turned, aligning with the system vector.

"We are going?" The chief queried.

"Yes." Thel stated. "Cortana, when we arrive, head for the hiding place and stay there unless we end up needing cover."

"Aye. Automated systems ready."

"Your armor is prepped in the armory." Vala announced. "Updates for firmware complete. Awaiting only occupants."

The two glanced at each other, and headed for the lift. As they did, the screen around the Spearhead darkened for a split second as the ship dropped into slipspace for a mere second.

As the ship reappeared, Cortana activated the stealth systems, and the craft disappeared.

The lift went down to half of the ship's height, stopping them close to the armory. The two piled out and entered the room.

Their armor was waiting for them close to the door, standing in the automated robots used to put on the armors.

The bodysuits were hanging neatly folded beside the respective suits. The two stepped forward and began to undress prior to putting on the bodysuits. As soon as they had finished, they turned backwards and stepped towards the machine, which immediately began its task of applying their suits.

The Chief's was designed to come on with relative ease compared to Thel's. Which the Sangheili was still struggling with his white suit, John began the process of gathering ammo. Vala and Cortana had been thoughtful enough to have their prep robots apply some tape to several ammo clips, allowing the Spartan to attach them quickly and with ease. 12 MA5C Assault rifle clips, along with 8 extra in an ammo clip on his belt. He also grabbed a pair of SMGs, along with several additional clips of ammo, some of which he taped to his back.

Easy way to differentiate the ammo types, he found. Around this time the Sangheili had finished his suiting up process, and gathered his own weapons and clips. He grabbed his energy sword, Carbine and dual plasma rifles, complete an extra battery for each.

Upon them both collecting several grenades, they collected Vala's chip and returned to the lift to finish their journey.

Thel was wearing his EVA helmet instead of his regular helmet. Other than that, his armor remained unchanged.

"Cortana to Shipmaster." The AI announced over the COM.

"Yes?" The recipient asked.

"We're in position. The ship has entered system with eleven potential hostiles surrounding it." She stated.

The elevator doors opened, revealing the Squad standing around a modified pelican airframe. Jimaenius leaned heavily against the pelican, Zhab sat on a warthog tyre and twisted the plasma battery in his beam rifle. Liyik and Limid were in the process of playing each other in some kind of Unggoy rock game. John had no idea who was winning.

Interestingly enough, two men from the Thunderclap were also standing against a warthog, both wielding a battle rifle each.

The Chief and the Shipmaster crossed the hangar. Jimaenius approached.

"What are we here for?" He asked.

The two soldiers by the warthog moved towards the Squad.

"We've detected a human ship drifting in system. It's passing by this planet's gravity as we speak. However, it's attracted the attention of several covenant and human rebel ships. We could hijack a dropship docked to the human ship and stow away on a covenant ship, and from there..." Thel explained, raising his voice so that everyone in the hangar heard him; "We have free access to their base."

"What if we find any human survivors?" John asked.

Thel paused for a second.

"Then we take them back to the Spearhead." He growled. "Then we'll have to deal with the covenant ship-to-ship."

There was a pause when he finished.

"Everyone mount up!" John yelled across the hangar.

Everyone shifted into action. The Spartan increased his pace and stuck an arm out before the two Thunderclap soldiers.

"You good?" He asked.

The first one looked right at him.

"About ninety percent, sir." Came the reply.

"I'm afraid I can't let you come with us." The Spartan said.

"Why not?" The second asked, beginning to sound annoyed.

"We need you two to stay behind and watch the ship, and in the event that we are all killed and the ship boarded, we need you to defend your crew and initiate Cole Protocol." He explained.

"Understood, sir." The first soldier said slowly.

They turned and walked off, clearly disappointed about being ordered to stay behind.

John heard a heavy foot hit the ground behind him.

"What did you tell them?" Thel asked.

"I told them to stay here and protect their crew." The Master Chief replied.

The Sangheili nodded. "Let us make haste."

They both turned back to climb aboard the pelican. Just as the Spartan put his foot to the metal walkway at the rear of the dropship, Cortana opened a COM channel.

"The ship has drifted near enough to get a visual on. I've got the name." She announced.

"What is it?" The Spartan asked.

"Chief, it's the UNSC Spirit of Fire."

The name seemed familiar. He paused to ponder it. The Squad watched him with some degree of interest. Suddenly, a flash of neurons flared at the back of his brain.

2531.

Arcadia.

Red Team...

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spirit of Fire, Cryo Deck C, March 2nd, 2553_

Douglas gasped as the door to the cryo pod opened, and he was hit by a blast of warm air. The naked man fell and hit the grated floor; from which he proceeded to begin coughing up the UNSC nourishment mixture.

He finished and looked up at those who had revived him. It was whom he had expected. Alice and Jerome, his squadmates, watched over the area while the waited for him to recover. Alice's hair was as short as Douglas remembered, and her thin face was also unchanged. Jerome too, was as he had been in Douglas' memory; with his shaven head and his moderately plump face, still standing forty centimetres or so taller than Alice.

They both had their weapons retrieved, and were carrying his. They hadn't gotten their suits, though.

As soon as he looked up at them, Alice offered him his undersuit for the MJOLNIR. He took it and immediately began the process of putting it on. There wasn't any embarrassment about being naked in front of his friends. They'd grown up together, so naturally they'd seen each other in such a state before. No one found this situation awkward in any way.

"Hurry." Jerome growled. "I don't know how much time we've got."

"What's going on?" Douglas asked, eager for intel.

The state of the ship left much to the imagination. There were no lights on across the corridor, and only their cryo pods were open.

The air seemed cold and stale; there was even ice leaking from the cryo pods the surrounding area, covering some of steel grating on the floor, and the ceiling too.

"The captain just roused us recently." Alice explained. "Serina just revived him and some marines. She said that some covenant ships in system had just taken interest in our ship and had landed some boarding parties on the lower decks. Shortly after, she initiated final dispensation. She was over twenty years old by that point. It's amazing she hadn't gone completely rampant by then."

Douglas nodded in understanding, yet another question came to mind.

"What... What year is it?" He asked, in the process of finishing the final zips.

"According to the captain, it's 2553." Jerome said.

Douglas stood up and accepted an assault rifle from Alice.

"Do we know if the covenant has won?"

Alice shook her head.

"No idea."

The three surveyed their surroundings. They knew the way from here straight to the armory, but they didn't know which area the covenant had taken, and which ones they hadn't.

"Is the armory under their control?" Douglas asked.

"We don't know. Sensors are offline throughout the ship. We don't know if we're being blocked or the circuitry has been destroyed by the ice." Jerome explained.

"So we're going to have to fight to get our MJOLNIR?"

"Yes. Everyone, move out!"

Douglas paused.

"What about the rest?" He asked, gesturing towards the unopened pods.

Alice looked down for a few seconds, then back up at Douglas.

"The Captain mentioned that as the years went on, Serina discovered that overspill from the ice was threatening the circuitry of the cryo pods. Initially she could prevent this by modulating currents through the cables to warm them up, but as the years went on and rampancy began to set in, she began becoming unable to do it for so many pods." She explained. "So Serina drafted a list of the crew as of their importance, which she tried her hardest to keep them alive in order. Only about a hundred or so, including us, were left when she woke us up."

"Any more questions?" Jerome asked, beginning to sound impatient.

"Hold on-" Alice suddenly interjected.

She pulled out a UNSC earpiece from her suit's pocket and handed it to Douglas. The Spartan took it and inserted it into his ear.

"I just gave Douglas his earpiece, sir." Alice announced over the COM.

"You there, son?" Captain Cutter asked, sounding somewhat tired.

"Yessir." Douglas replied.

"What's your status?"

"Green, sir. I am one hundred and ten percent."

"Good to hear, Spartan. I have some guys here who've been out of the freezer for ten minutes now and they're still suffering." The captain replied, some weariness draining from his voice.

"What's our plan, sir?" Douglas asked.

"As I'm sure your teammates have told you, we've been boarded. Serina just shut down, and we have no sensors. I want Red Team to sneak down to the armory and retrieve their armor, and then fall back to the bridge with the rest of us. Take it stealthily, Spartan's you're too valuable to lose. Cutter out."

"There's our orders." Jerome stated. "Let's get a move on, Spartans! Quiet as you can."

The three advanced down the corridor. The doorway led to a walkway that connected around five decks through stairways from either above or below.

The armory was three decks down, so unfortunately, they could go directly down onto its deck, they'd have to find another after this.

Jerome raised his hand and pointed to himself before pointing forward. This signified he was taking point. Alice assumed midguard, while Douglas brought up the rear.

The ship was quiet. As they progressed along the walkway, they heard nothing from any of the decks both above and below.

It was almost eerie. Emergency lights were the only sources of light, casting a few blue beams across the chamber.

They reached the first stairway soundlessly with no incident. Jerome continued to lead them down to the next deck below. The deck they had descended to was even less lit than the first one; many of the overhead walkways obscured the lights.

A faint groan echoed through the halls. The group switched on their helmet and weapon lights. The lights revealed several previously unseen corridors. Those corridors, fortunately, were empty.

Red Team swept around the walkways and started down the second staircase below. There were even less lights on the lower deck.

Jerome swept his lights across the deck. Suddenly, the light fell upon a pair of Brutes and grunts walking across the deck. Somehow, Jerome had missed them on his first sweep.

They immediately spun to face the Spartans.

"Humans!" One brute yelled.

The Spartans opened fire on the group. First the grunts went down, and the Spartans focused fire on one of the brutes.

Douglas vaulted over the bannister of the stairs, falling onto the deck below. Fortunately for Douglas, the deck below was the proper bottom of this stairwell, so he could immediately swing around the bottom bannister and open fire.

An explosion echoed from the stairway; one of the brutes must have had a brute shot. One brute cried out suddenly, followed by a sound of something heavy smashing the ground.

Douglas rounded the bottom of the stairway. One bridge was still standing, though he was taking a pounding from the Spartan's weapons. Douglas joined the barrage and the brute almost immediately went down.

Alice and Jerome joined him at the foot of the stairs. They seemed unharmed. There was silence as the reloaded their rifles.

Jerome reopened a Chanel to the captain.

"We've been engaged by a small group of covenant. We defeated them with no injuries."

"How close are you to the armory?" Cutter asked.

"About three hundred and fifty meters away."

"Keep your stealth up. Good luck."

The channel closed.

The team reformed and continued down a dark central hallway of the Spirit. This corridor would eventually open out at another stairway that would take them down the the armory's level.

A group of three elites suddenly walked out of a crossroads directly ahead of them.

"Contacts!" Douglas yelled, and Red Team raised weapons.

Two elites spotted them and moved to take cover, however the third was too slow and had his shields taken down before he took cover.

One elite threw himself out into the corridor with both plasma rifles firing. Red team scattered to avoid the superheated blasts.

Douglas covered Alice and Jerome, and a lucky shot of his hit the plasma rifle itself, bisecting the weapon. As the elite stared at his hand in shock, Alice and Jerome broke his shields and hit him several times in the head.

The elite went down. Jerome and Alice forced open a door to their right and took cover in the room. Douglas followed to cover and took a defensive position just inside the metal doorframe.

One elite poked his head out from behind the wall he was covering behind. Failing to notice Douglas, he revealed himself fully, cautiously advancing.

Holding his rifle in his left hand, he gestured to the other Spartans that a target had revealed themselves. A second later, he was tapped on the shoulder by one them. They were ready.

And without warning, the two Spartans lunged out, rifles up. The elite retreated immediately, but was hit by fire. Douglas opened up his own rifle and the elite went down.

Silence once again reigned.

The Spartans moved out and reached the end of the corridor. It opened out onto another walkway along a staircase.

The emergency lights blazed across the chamber. Douglas and Jerome combed the upper walkways for covenant, while Alice combed the decks below.

"Clear." She reported.

"Same here." Douglas stated.

They headed to the stairway and headed a deck down. Silence reigned. They were now on the armory deck. In fact, they were only a few meters away from it.

They were alone, encountering no resistance as they advanced.

They proceeded down the corridor parallel to it until they found a door. A quick hand scan and the door opened without resistance.

The armory was dark and foreboding. The three scanned the armory. Even with their enhanced eyesight, they detected no enemies.

Douglas felt rather disturbed by the silence and lack of enemies.

"Move out." Jerome whispered. "Hand signals from now on. Find the MJOLNIR."

They had a general idea where the suits where in the armory, and they headed in that direction.

Still no contacts. Not much of anything, really.

Eventually, the suits appeared out of the darkness.

"Alright, Douglas, you armor up first, we'll cover you, then you trade places with Alice, and then she trades with me." Jerome ordered.

"Yessir." Douglas replied, and lowered his rifle and stepped onto the elevated platform the suits were held on.

He withdrew the helmet. It was a bit dusty, but mostly it was the same state he'd left it.

He grinned slightly. Time to go to work.

 **I+-+-+I**

 _UNSC Spirit of Fire, Corridor 16: Section 4, March 2nd, 2553._

The objective was simple; infiltrate and search, before detonating the reactor to destroy both the fleet and Human technology, and if possible, retrieve any survivors. Using the scanners would have attracted attention from the covenant, so they went in blind.

Given the modified state of the ship as well, blueprints were potentially useless to find the reactor, it would have to be located manually.

Two groups would cover more ground in general, and attract less attention. All the same, Zhab found surveying the area with Jimaenius, Liyik and Limid to be incredibly tedious.

Zhab also wasn't the biggest fan of the combat harness he'd been given either. There was a reason that Kig-yar usually wore a minimal harness; they're greatest strength was their agility, without that, even an Unggoy could probably best them in hand to hand.

The jackal had heard stories of such a thing. Of course, what made it even worse was the presence of the others. Jimaenius alone made more noise than a phantom, with his deep, heavy breathing and loud footsteps, and Liyik and Limid were not much better.

Being a former pirate, as most Kig-yar were or had been at some point, Zhab preferred silence when scouting; which was more or less proving impossible.

They hadn't ran into anyone yet, covenant or human; though they weren't far in from the airlock of the human ship. Or so it seemed, as these metal walls never seemed to change.

"Jackal, stop!" Yelled a voice from behind.

It was an elite. The harness was hard to make out in the darkness, but it was definitely not the shipmaster. Jimaenius glanced over at Zhab, seeing how he reacted before acting on his own.

"Come here, right now, all of you!" The Elite snarled.

"Shut your jaws." Zhab snapped back quietly, and raised his beam rifle and fired.

The shot smashed clean through the Elite shields and armor, but went through his shoulder without resistance, Zhab, seeing his shot fail to kill the target, spun and flattened himself against the wall.

The Elite drew a plasma rifle and fired. Liyik and Limid dived aside instinctively, but Jimaenius remained calm and collected. The Jiralhanae reached over his shoulder, drew a Brute shot, and fired. The round bounced once down the corridor, before impacting and tearing the Elite apart with an explosion.

"So much for silence." Jimaenius mused as he turned back to his group.

Zhab merely nodded.

He opened a COM channel to the rest of the Squad.

"We've kind of had to use loud lethal force on a target." Zhab announced quickly.

A pause, then the Spartan spoke quickly.

"Alright, change of plans. Everyone regroup at these coordinates and await further orders. Cortana?"

A waypoint appeared on Zhab's HUD.

"If you cross paths with survivors, feel free to guide them to the waypoint, but actively searching for them is no longer a side objective; do not deviate to search."

The group understood fine and set off, Jimaenius taking the lead, his hulking form taking up most of the corridor as they advanced.

They reached an open platform with stairs descending and ascending on either side of the platform. The waypoint was on the floor above them, so they headed across the walkway to the staircase upwards on the other side of the platform.

The silence continued. The group came around and began down the waypoint corridor. Dispite Zhab's increasing unease, they didn't encounter anything until the reacehed the waypoint, where the Commander and Shipmaster were waited.

"What now?" Jimaenius asked as he approached.

"Did you cross paths with any survivors?" The commander asked.

"Nah." Zhab shook his head.

A pause for a few seconds as the group surveyed the corridor opening behind the two they had just met.

"We go as a whole group now." The commander ordered. "We want to try heading to the center of the ship and search for engineering shafts."

A nod from the rest of the Squad.

"Take point." The commander said to the Shipmaster.

The Sangheili complied, while Zhab took up the rear. The commander and the Sangheili tended to take turns leading point. The corridors seemed to be getting smaller and colder as they walked on. Zhab could now see the breath of the Squad misting in front of them now.

They headed through a doorway that was frozen open. A collection of ice around the edges held it in place. It made Zhab feel uneasy looking at it. It led to a diverging path. Ahead opened a thin metal cavern that stretched off into the darkness. On the left was a collection of stairs. This in turn was followed by a walkway.

The right was also a walkway, but without stairs. Both seemed pretty unstable. The commander gestured to head to the left. The group proceeded to do so. The Sangheili took the lead, slowly stepping up each step in turn. He was more quiet with his approach, more relieving to the Kig-yar.

Jimaenius even scooped up the Unggoy as they climbed the stairs, evidently trying to keep the noise down, even if he wasn't the quietest thing himself. Zhab appreciated the gesture. There was a series of doors on the left as the group advanced down the corridor. They were all closed, but on there was a corridor directly ahead. Zhab was at the rear, so he didn't have to clear it or anything, but all the same it uneased him.

Something erupted from the hallway as the Arbiter examined it. The thing grabbed him and the two broke through the guard rails and fell onto the platform below. With a clang, the two began a closeup brawl on top of the other.

Zhab couldn't really see the two beneath the metal girder, and a collection of shadows began to cross a section of lights down around the doorway.

"Ambush!" Jimaenius roared, drawing his brute shot.

Zhab couldn't help but agree.


End file.
